


Blue Roses

by PeanuutFlower



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Ghosts, Iverson is a jerk, Keith feels a little down, Lance is bitter, Langst, M/M, Mentions of Suicide, Pidge and Keith bond, Slow Burn, Swear Words, There's a café, conspiracy theorists, ghost hunting website, ghost!keith, haunted apartment, horror movies, sleep deprived hunk, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 15:44:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10970358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeanuutFlower/pseuds/PeanuutFlower
Summary: “Whoa … Hey … hey ! Hunk !” Lance shouted in a high pitched voice, trying to steady his trembling and jumpy friend. “ What's with you ? Why are you screaming at pillows ?!”“The g-the ghost !” Hunk screamed. “It was real ! It wasn't a nightmare !”“The ghost ? What are you talking about ? You're not making any sense !” Pidge exclaimed.“The ghost ! Of this apartment ! It attacked me with these pillows last night !”-Hunk, Pidge and Lance all go to the same college and share the same apartment. Pretty normal, right ?Except for the fact this particular apartment is still inhabited by the previous owner. A rather ... not alive ... previous owner.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello ... first maybe long and serious fic I'm posting on this website ...
> 
> Before you may begin, here are some instructions :
> 
> -Klance and Hunay will happen later in the fic. Most likely, Hunay will be first.
> 
> -Read the tags. I'll post new tags for each updates, and ratings may change.
> 
> -Expect slow updates ... (I'm sorry), real life takes time from me. And I'm prone to procrastination AND perfectionism, and neither of them are good, productivity wise.
> 
> -I know a fic like this one has been done, since I had the great idea (sarcasm) to go look up these kind of fics, and I saw that it's really popular, but I can assure you I have never read it, and from its summary I can tell it's at least a little different.
> 
>  
> 
> Shay will appear in chapter 2.  
> Keith will appear in chapter 3.

Hunk was pacing around the bus stop, looking ever so often at his phone.

“What are they doing ?” He mumbled under his breath, stepping to the side to let an old lady pass on the crowded sidewalk. He stared at his blank screen. Lance had promised him he'd text him before he and Pidge would arrive. There was no sign of them, no texts, and the bus was scheduled to come soon.

A few weeks prior, Hunk had purchased an apartment for the three of them near the campus of the Garrison, the college they were going to, and they had made an arrangement to meet at this spot in exactly … minus ten minutes.

 Still pacing around the sidewalk, he waited a few more minutes, his patience wearing a bit thin. He exhaled a long breath, trying to calm his nerves down, and shortly after he heard an array of rushed footsteps. He turned around to see both his friends running towards him, sweaty and with their hair dishevelled, looking like maniacs, their luggage thrown around on themselves, visibly weighing them down. They arrived just in time, as the bus was turning around the corner of the street.

Hunk greeted them briefly, but not before giving the two a look of slight disapproval, and they all rushed inside their ride.

Once they were all seated inside, Hunk scolded his friends, lecturing them on the importance of meeting one's commitment, as well as ponctuality, while they were trying to arrange themselves, being especially aware of the stares the other passengers were giving to their sorry state.

 “Yes, we get it mom.” Was the first reply he got from Lance, as Pidge snickered behind them.

 Hunk simply scoffed, and Pidge and Lance decided on talking to each other to let their friend cool off, which he did eventually, smiling a little as the others talked excitedly about their respective families. He stayed like this for a while, listening to them talking, until one part of the conversation caught his attention.

 "Your brother went to England ?” He asked Pidge.

 “Yup. With my father. He's going to study in one of those big universities I kinda forgot the name of ... And as I was saying, his appartment isn't far from where we'll live, so if you two bother me too much-”

 “Nah we wont. And I don't think we'll host a lot of parties this year either. Right Lance ?” He said, looking rather smugly at his friend, who was slouched against his seat.

 “Yeah, yeah … sure … whatever ...” Lance huffed, looking out the window.

 Pidge and Hunk exchanged a knowing glance, before she grabbed Lance by the shoulders and tried to push him off his seat, to no avail.

 “What the heck, Pidge !” Lance said, turning around to look at her, furious, before going back in his initial position after being scolded by the bus driver. At that, he turned to Hunk and chose to whisper.

 “By the way, why are we going there by bus ? I thought you had a van ?”

 “Yeah, Lance is right, and that would have been way better than ...” She too whispered, gesturing to her surroundings and pushing one of her bags further down the empty seat next to her. “This !”

 Hunk felt a slight pang of guilt, and proceeded to tell them that his van had broken down two days ago. Unable to find the source of the problem, he had to take it to the repair workshop he had assigned to work in for the year.

 “Wow, if you can't find where it's from, it must be pretty serious.” Pidge pondered.

 “I don't know, I've been kinda out of it lately, maybe it's a small thing and it just slipped by me ...”

 “Don't worry about it.” Lance said comfortingly. “ At least the bus isn't too crowded.”

 After a few stops along the way, their bus finally arrived at the dorm section of the campus. They got out and walked for a good fifteen minutes before reaching a rather clean looking, five storey high building. Hunk told them the apartment was at the very top, and that they would unfortunately have to use the stairs for a while, as the elevator was under maintenance.

After a tedious walk up the stairs, they reached the last floor. Hunk headed to the right end of the corridor, followed closely by the others, and reached for his keys to open the door.

 

 When they entered the apartment, both his friends went “Woah.”

The entrance was a narrow corridor, but the inside was really wide by apartment standards. There was a living room linked to a cozy-looking kitchen, and three rooms, side by side.The living room had a balcony, from wich they could go on the roof. Overall, the whole placed was bathed in sunlight.

After his initial shock, Lance quickly turned to Hunk.

 “How much ?!” He asked, his expression unreadable.

 “How much what ?” Hunk asked, not really understanding where his friend was going with this.

 “How much does it cost ?! I mean it's … impossible. No way. I refuse to believe we can afford this.”

 “It really doesn't cost a lot, especially since we're living here together.” Hunk shrugged.

 “If it's cheap, there's a catch.” Pidge chimed in.

 “Pidge, come on ...” Lance started.

 “What ? There's always a catch in these situations.”

 “No, I don't think there is a catch ...” Hunk said toughtfully. “I mean, the person who sold me this was Shiro.”

 “Shiro ? The hot cosmology P.A. ?” Lance asked raising his eyebrow.

 “Yes, that one.”

 “Shiro ? Really ? I haven't heard from him in ages … I wonder how he is doing ...” Pidge wondered out loud.

 “Well, since the place is cheap, and ours, I say we make the most out of it.” Lance said while heading towards a bedroom located in the corner of the flat, which was sure to be the most illuminated of the three. “By the way, I'm calling dibs on this one.”

 This was followed by groans from the other two.

 Shortly after, they started unpacking their belongings into their respective rooms, Pidge got the middle one after a coin toss with Hunk, before meeting up in the living room. The place didn't have much apart from a small sofa and table, and it felt really big and empty to the three of them. They decided they would try and decorate it with plants and the likes to try and get rid of that uneasy feeling the room gave out.

After that, they went to check on the bathroom, that they could access via another short corridor, and after a close inspection, mostly on Lance's part, it earned the three's approval. As they went out, Pidge asked Hunk about the cupboard at the end of the corridor, wondering why it seemed to be condemned.

 “I don't know.” He said while scratching his head in confusion. “Shiro told me one of the rooms was off-limits, said it wasn't a big deal. But I don't know why it is … maybe there was a fire ? Or a flood ?”

“Ooooh, here's a possible catch !” Pidge grinned.

 “Who cares about some boring storage unit that we most likely wont use … at least the utility room seems okay.” Lance said as he opened the door to said room to check on it, before seeing it to be all in order. “See ?”

 Pidge stuck her tongue out at him before going back to the living room alongside Hunk, mumbling something about these boys always ruining her fun.

Lance shook his head, a small smile on his face, that quickly turned into a frown as he looked back at the condemned room.

 

“Still, I hope whatever happened in there wont cause us any trouble …”

 

* * *

 When they finished settling for good, arranging some of the furniture that came with the flat as well as the few things they brought with them, the sun was going down in the horizon.

They decided to order pizza, too tired and restless to try and cook something, and sat on the small sofa of the living room.

As they waited for the delivery, Pidge, who had just transferred from another college to the one they would be attending, asked the two boys about the teachers they had, looking their names up on the online schedule.

 “So, tomorrow we start at 8AM … zoology with …

 “Labos.” Lance said.

 “How is he ?” Pidge asked.

 “Well ...” Hunk started, sharing a look with Lance. “ He isn't the best … but he isn't the worst either. His P.As are usually cool though, I think.”

 “Who's the worst then ?”

 “Iverson.” Lance said matter-of-factly. “He teaches aviation. And fate has it that we have a lecture with him right after zoology. 10 AM or something ...”

 “Yes, 10 AM. Is he really that bad ?”

 “You'll see for yourself.” Lance shrugged.

 “Lucky for us,” Hunk started. “We have cosmology with Coran in the afternoon.”

 “Yeah. Coran's the best.” Lance sighed. “Especially after such a shitty morning.”

 “Well then I guess we'll have to go to sleep early if we want to make it through the morning ...”

 Pidge's pondering was cut short by a ring on their doorbell that Hunk went to answer. He came back with the pizza as Pidge was looking through her video files.

 "What are we watching ?” He asked.

 “Horror movie.” Lance answered, gladly taking the pizza away from his hands.

 At that, Hunk froze. He liked watching movies with his friends, but he wasn't exactly a big fan of this particular genre …

 “Can't we watch something else ? ...”

 “Oh come on, Hunk !” Pidge exclaimed, still looking at her laptop's screen. “Don't tell me you still get scared by these !”

 “Well, I still get scared by these ! I really want to sleep tonight, and I don't want to worry about some crazy psycho trying to get into my room to slice me up in half !” He replied defensively.

 “Don't worry dude, it's a ghost movie.” Lance said smiling a little. “ Ghosts aren't real, unlike crazy psychos. So you wont have to worry about one showing up.”

 “Well it may not be a proper slasher story, but the ghost **is** a crazy psycho.” Pidge said, finally turning to look at them.

 “What's it about then ?” Hunk asked, unsure he should really watch this. He usually needed to be told the gist of the story so as to not be too frightened.

 His friends were aware of it, so Pidge nodded to Lance, the cuban trying to come up with a good summary.

 “It's called “The Death Suite”.” He started while heading to the corner of the room to switch the lights off. “ It's about the ghost of a guy who used to own a hotel and hung himself in one of the luxury suites. When the hotel was put under new ownership, his ghost came back to terrify the customers, and kill some of them in very inventive ways. Then I think a group of ghost hunters is called in and … well that's all I got from watching the trailers.”

 This summary convinced Hunk to at least give the movie a chance.

 Pidge set up her laptop, went full screen and hit play, before she took a slice of pizza and practically swallowed it up whole as the opening credits played out, which earned her a few disgusted stares from the other two. They all made themselves comfortable among the pillows on the sofa.

 The beginning of the movie was rather slow, the eerie atmosphere set up by a thunderstorm, and Hunk thought watching it would be a breeze despite the presence of the ghost wrecking havoc and scaring off customers, until the murders started taking place. He tensed up as he watched a possessed girl go into one of the water tanks on the roof and drown, hearing Pidge comment that it was largely inspired by real life events that had, of course, nothing to do with ghosts, which didn't really help Hunk calm himself down.

Later in the movie, he screamed at one of the ghost hunters on screen to look behind him, startling both Lance and Pidge. The poor guy saw the ghost and backed away from it, only to fall into one of its trap and die a gruesome death.

 At his point, Hunk started feeling sick. Lucky for him, the movie approached its end, and the conclusion came with the destruction of the hotel, and the crooked smile of the previous owner's ghost, disappearing into the night to go cause death and mischief in some other place.

Lance turned the lights back on as a big bloody “To be continued ...” appeared on screen. Hunk was hugging one of the pillows, and was slightly teased by the other two, Pidge lightly kicking his side and Lance ruffling his hair and saying he at least made it to the end.

Pidge strecthed out her sore limbs and looked at the time. They were past 11 PM, so Lance excused himself and went to the bathroom to do his beauty routine for the night. Pidge shut off her laptop and headed to her room after going to the toilets, yelling her friends good night. Hunk stayed behind and checked around the table, swept the floor and went to pee, before deciding on going to bed. He waited for Lance to come back to his room, said goodnight and hit the lights off.

 

* * *

 A few hours later, he was woken up by a crash.

Confused, he looked around only to be met by a flash, followed by a loud rumbling sound. He sighed and tried to go back to sleep despite the unexpected thunderstorm, but soon found his throat to be too dry for his liking. With a grunt, he got out of bed and checked the time. 3 AM. He sighed once again, rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes, and headed out of his room, into in the kitchen.

He switched the lights on and watched out for any kind of flickering, taking one of the glasses on the counter and filling it with water. He immediately took a gulp, and as another flash of light tore the sky apart, his restless mind couldn't help but think back to the movie he just watched.

He shook his head as if to make the thought go away, but it stayed there and growed stronger. He tensed up as he carefully wacthed the dim lit living room, looking out for any weird looking shadows.

 After a while he relaxed and took another gulp, but nearly spit out as he heard glass breaking.

He found that one of the glasses had fallen down the counter, no doubt because he didn't pay attention and pushed it while grabbing the one he used.

Cursing under his breath, he took the broom and swept the floor, trying to gather as many glass shards as he could. He then used a bunch of kitchen paper to store them, and walked towards the trash can to put them in. As he approached, the trash seemed to move on its own, away from him.

He blamed it on his tired mind and put the broken glass and paper inside. Right after he closed the lid, he shivered and felt very cold. He went to check on the electrical heater, thinking maybe the storm broke it, but found it to be working perfectly fine.

He was ready to go back to his bedroom, when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and searched the flat for any intruder, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. However, as he stepped out of the kitchen, ready to switch the lights off, the lights of the living room turned on.

Hunk just stood there and watched, mouth wide, not really knowing what to make of what he just witnessed. He tried to see if he inadvertedly turned them on, but came to the conclusion that it was impossible, as the light switch he was closest to only monitored the kitchen lights.

At that realization, he was struck with a feeling of dread, but his logical side took the matter in its hands.

Obviously the lights turning on wasn't caused by the storm, so the only explanation was that someone was playing a trick on him. At that, Hunk remembered that Lance used to reenact scary moments from the slasher movies they used to watch when they were younger, and usually scared him off his pants before showing up around a corner laughing like a mad man.

Ticked off, Hunk forgot all about his previous fright and stood straight at the entrance of the kitchen.

 “Okay guys, lay off, this isn't funny anymore, and it never was. We have a busy day tomorrow and I'd like to sleep, and I think you should sleep too. So we can all just go back to our rooms, and never speak of this again.”

 His demands were met with the muffled snores coming from both Lance and Pidge's rooms.

A few seconds after, another lightning struck the building, and Hunk heard an out of sight door opening and closing repeatedly. He yelped and retreated back in the kitchen, waiting for the noise to stop before going out again, slowly.

He felt another chill, and looked around the room once more.

To his horror, he saw a shadow moving near the sofa of the living room, despite it being fully lit. Trembling, he raised his voice at the possible intruder.

 “Come out and fight me if you're a …” He hesitated on the word he would choose. “If you're a man ! Or a ghost ! Or anything !”

 The rush of adrenaline he had just felt came to a stop as his face met with a pillow thrown from across the room. As his stare focused on the spot the pillow came from, he saw that another one of them was floating in mid-air, with no one and nothing touching it.

He screamed and ducked it as it came his way, and rushed into his room, frantically locking his door behind him.

His heart was beating like crazy, and his breathing was erratic. He inhaled sharply a few times, trying to calm himself, slumping against the door.

But after hearing a loud bang coming from outside, he hit the lights, pounced on his bed and ducked beneath the covers, shivering in fear.

For a moment he was worried about the others, but was too scared to go back and check on them.

He stayed like that for what felt like hours. After a while, the thunder dimmed down before stopping completely, and so did the paranormal activity.

He closed his heavy eyelids and sighed in defeat knowing that he had lost precious hours of sleep and only had a few hours left to make up for it.

With that in mind, he drifted into a short and nightmare-filled sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was Hunk for three nights straight after researching stuff for this fic.  
> (Ghost activity, strange disappearances, unsolved murders ... I also drifted away and looked up cryptids, creepypastas, aliens and conspiracy theories ...)
> 
> Yeah, I was kinda paranoïd these last few days. Never doing that again. Doesn't help that I live close to a graveyard. Like ... really close.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, despite its lack of romantic interactions. (Though it is a slowburn fic, so ... plus their interactions as roommates/friends are fun to write ... I am writing way too many things for an author's note again, aren't I ? I'm sorry.)
> 
> Thanks for the time you took reading this !


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Pidge woke up first. She cheered as it meant she could use the bathroom before Lance. She had never experienced it, but rumors said he was prone to bathroom-hogging in the early times of the day.

She took a quick breakfast and went inside the bathroom right on time, as Lance stepped out of his room and yawned her a “Hi, pidgeon.” that was met by a little jab.

When she got out, she saw that Lance was alone at the breakfast table, and started to worry.

“Where's Hunk ?”

“Huh ? Oh, I don't know, he must still be sleeping, though I'm getting kinda worried … he usually wakes up before me on monday mornings ...” Lance answered sleepily, almost spilling the coffee he was trying to get into his cup.

“Must be because it's the start of a new year …” Pidge said toughtfully.

“Must be …” Lance yawned, blowing the steam out of his cup.

Having nothing better to do, Pidge tried to chat with Lance. Emphasis on tried. Lance was usually a morning person, but on mondays he was akin to a sloth.

They went quiet as they heard Hunk's door open. The boy stepped out sluggishly and looked like he hadn't had any sleep in the last three years. This caught both his friends attention, and Lance fully woke up and rushed to his side, a concerned look on his face.

“Dude … what happened ? You look awful. I mean, Pidge, do you see those dark circles under his eyes ?!”

“Yeah, I see them alright …” She said, her voice filled with worry. “Are you alright ? Does it hurt anywhere ? Are you feeling sick ?”

“I'm alright.” He said, his voice breaking a little. “Just … didn't get much sleep last night ...”

“Why ?” They both said.

Hunk seemed to debate wether or not he should tell them the reason, before he seemed to settle for something.

“Thunderstorm.”

“There was a thunderstorm ? I didn't hear anything ...” Pidge said.

“Neither did I.” Lance added.

“That doesn't count. You sleep with music on, I'm just a heavy sleeper.” She said, crossing her arms.

“It doesn't matter how we sleep, the fact is we didn't hear the thunderst-”

Their little spat was cut short by Hunk's loud snores. Lance had to catch him before he fell down on the floor.

“Ugh, dude, you're heavy.” Lance groaned.

“You're just lanky.” Pidge sneered.

"Shut it brussel sprout.” He retorted, dodging a nasty looking jab before turning his attention to his sleeping friend. “ Man, I thought he wasn't scared of thunderstorms …”

“Well, there was a thunderstorm in the movie we wacthed … so maybe he got scared because of that ?”

“That, or there was something else … Hunk has very good hearing, even in his sleep. When he was little, he woke up his parents to tell them he heard a monster in the house. Turns out the monster was two burglars.” He said, trying to shake Hunk awake.

Pidge looked at him for a moment, face serious, muttered “Got it.” and went to check if any of their belongings had been stolen. Nothing seemed out of order, but as she went back to the living room she noticed the pillows thrown across it.

“Did you two have a pillow fight yesterday ?” She asked Lance, who had succesfully woken Hunk up.

Confused, Lance told her that they didn't. When she showed him the pillows, he simply scratched his head. “ 'Must be some sort of explanation for this ...” He muttered.

Hunk joined them, and when he looked at the pillows he screamed.

“Whoa … Hey … hey ! Hunk !” Lance shouted in a high pitched voice, trying to steady his trembling and jumpy friend . “ What's with you ? Why are you screaming at pillows ?!”

“The g-the ghost !” Hunk screamed. “It was real ! It wasn't a nightmare !”

“The ghost ? What are you talking about ? You're not making any sense !” Pidge exclaimed.

“The ghost ! Of this apartment ! It attacked me with these pillows last night !”

Pidge and Lance exchanged a glance, looking at Hunk like he was crazy, and he visibly deflated.

“You don't believe me, do you ?” Hunk said in defeat.

“No.” They both said in return.

“I mean, no offense dude, but your mind must have played tricks on you, even if it wasn't a dream ...” Lance tried to explain.

“Then how do you explain this ?!” Hunk said, midly annoyed, pointing at the pillows sprawled against the floor.

“Maybe you threw them yourself but don't remember … ?” Pidge tried. “Anyway, you two should get prepared, we have to take the bus and it's a fifteen minutes walk from there, remember ? And another ten minutes to get to the Garrison. I really don't want to be late for my first day there. If you guys aren't ready to get going in twenty minutes, I'm leaving without you.”

 

They managed to get everything done in the time span Pidge had given them, but the walk to the bus stop was tedious for Hunk, who almost tripped three times on the way.

With their luck, the bus driver was late, and they had to rush to the back of the amphitheater alongside a dozen of students from their year. When they arrived, the lecture was on the brink of starting. The professor hardly gave them attention and started talking fast as they tried to gather their stuff and take a few notes as quickly as humanely possible.

After that rather agitated beginning, the lecture took a boring turn and more and more students started talking as professor Labos' speech became slower and slower.

Not being able to hear anything, Pidge turned to her friends.

“Is it always like this with him ?” She asked, annoyed.

“No, sometimes it's worse … right Hunk ?” Lance whispered and turned to his friend, only to find him asleep. “Oh, come on ...”

Right after that, the chatting dimmed down as the professor introduced his P.A. She was a rather friendly looking woman, and murmurs of approval could be heard, as well as some snarky remarks about how anyone would be better than Labos at teaching.

Once the lecture ended, they headed to the cafeteria as they had thirty minutes to spare until Aviation 101.

Pidge took in her new surroundings, and tried to remember the path they took to get there. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't see the figure she inevitably bumped in.

“Oh, I'm sorry ! I wasn't paying attention ...” Said a voice that seemed quite familiar to Pidge.

“No, it's okay, I wasn't looking either.” She said as she raised her head to take a better look at her interlocutor, and beamed when she recognised that face. “Shay !”

“Pidge ?” Shay asked to make sure she wasn't being fooled. “ Oh yes, it is you ! I didn't know you transferred !”

“I didn't know you transferred too ! Why did you anyway ?” She said, her excitement showing.

“Oh, I just wanted to be closer to my family. They live in another town, but my grandmother lives here. I plan to help her out in her jewelry shop this year.” Shay explained, smiling.

“That's great ! I just transferred here to be closer to my family too, and to join my friends who were already there.”

“Really ?” Shay exclaimed, sounding hopeful. “Oh, sorry. It's just, I thought I'd be on my own this year. Would it bother you to introduce me to them ?”

“Oh, no. Not at all. I'll introduce you, follow me !”

With that said, Pidge took the lead and they navigated through the masses of students gathering there, chatting about their holidays, their jobs, or the lectures they had and will be having. They headed to the far corner of the cafeteria where Pidge thought she saw her friends go.

They finally reached a small table in the corner where Hunk and Lance were seated. The former seemed to be zoning out over his cup of coffee, while the latter was finger-gunning some new students, who either giggled or gave him looks.

Pidge coughed to get their attention, and once she had it, she introduced Shay to them. She was pleasantly surprised that Lance didn't try to outright flirt with her, which often meant he felt a connection with a person that was deeper than just physical, and smiled a bit. She turned to Hunk and coughed a little, poking him in the arm, trying to get him to at least say hello.

“Wake up sleepyhead … in case you haven't noticed, we have a guest at the table ...” She whispered.

He looked up to meet Shay's eyes and only muttered a quick “Oh, hi.” before zoning out again.

Pidge facepalmed and Lance congrulated Hunk on his first impression, but Shay just giggled.

“If I'm not too indiscreet … why is your friend like that ?” She asked a few moments after.

“Oh, Hunk ? He just had a bad night's sleep is all ...” Lance said.

“Oh my, is it because of last night's thunderstorm ? I know how it feels … I was scared to death. I had to go sleep in my older brother's room ...” She then turned to Hunk. “ It's okay, though, we only have roughly five hours left to go.”

“Yeah, but next class is with Iverson … if Hunk falls asleep there ...”

“I wont … “ He muttered.

Lance gave him a look, that turned from sarcastic to sympathetic. “Yeah, right.”

“Is professor Iverson that bad ? I mean I've heard rumors, but are they to be trusted ?” Shay asked.

“I don't know, they told me about him last year and it seemed like he's a torture enthusiast or something … so I didn't really take it into account. Even forgot about the guy.”

“As I said to you last night, Pidge ...” Lance chimed in. “You'll see for yourselves.”

 

And indeed they saw it.

It seemed that professor Iverson was physically and mentally incapable of being nice or talking without shouting. Most of the students in the front row were either covering their ears as discreetly as possible, or holding their heads in pain. Shay and Pidge were exactly doing that, as they had the great idea to go sit in the front row despite Lance's warnings, as few students had sat there, contrasting with Labos' lecture.

Now they knew why.

At one point they managed to breathe a little as the class fell silent. However, the faces of the other students lead Pidge on the fact this supposedly wasn't a good thing.

She turned back and followed their stares, and found that her friends were the center of attention. Hunk had fallen asleep, as one would expect, and Lance was frantically trying to wake him up, his face red.

Seeing her friends in such an uncomfortable position made Pidge uneasy, and she could feel that Shay felt the same way even if she barely knew them.

“MCCLAIN.” Iverson's loud voice echoed troughout the amphitheater, forcing a few students to cover their ears more distinctively than before.

Lance seemed to all but freeze, and his face flushed even harder. He looked like a kitten being scolded. It was both adorable and heartbreaking.

“I know that, for once, it is your friend that fell asleep ...” The professor started. “But judging from last year's events, I highly suspect you have something to do with it.”

This brought a feeling of rage within Pidge. Who did this guy thought he was, making assumptions about her friends ? She could do nothing but watch as Lance seemed to shrunk down in his seat, and she threw silent insults at the students who were watching his every move like predators ready to pounce on an already weakened prey.

“Seeing as you're already looking for trouble on the first day, I suppose it wont be long before you will pay a visit to the Discipline Council, like one of the students from last year. So mark my words, McClain : If you wish to stay in the Garrison, you'd better behave. I wont hesitate to report you in.”

With that said, Iverson resumed to talking loudly about aerodynamics, leaving Lance on the brink of tears, Hunk still asleep next to him.

Pidge was fuming, plotting in her head and taking great pleasure imagining ways she could torture the asshole standing in frpnt of her for the rest of the lecture.

 

At lunch, they all sat at the table, and Pidge didn't hesitate one second before letting her pent-up anger out, flailing her arms all around, taking angry bites out of her food, and overall talking about how unfair Iverson was being to Lance, while Hunk and Shay were giving him sympathetic glances.

Frankly, she remembered that her friend used to talk about Iverson quite a lot, and not in a good way. He always seemed anxious, wether he spoke anout him on the phone or on skype, and sometimes she swore she thought he was about to break down crying. She thought it had just been Lance being overly sensitive, but now she understood that he wasn't, and she deeply regretted the snarky or dismissive remarks she had made to him over the months.

“Seriously, what is this guy's problem ?! Did you kill his dog or something ? 'Cause nothing else could justify such hatred !”She ranted.

“Pidge ...” Lance said weakly, toying with a fry.

“And why aren't you reporting his behavior ? Surely there's a rule against that somewhere ?” She continued, not paying attention to his response.

“Pidge, really … it's nothing ...”

“Nothing ?! How is it nothing ? He humiliated you ! On the first day ! And he blamed you for something you didn't do at all !” She yelled.

“Pidge.” Hunk said, now much more awake, and both embarassed and guilty for dozing off and putting Lance in that predicament. “It's okay … well it's not okay but … he does that with a lot of students. He's a sadist. Even the staff knows about it. But nobody does anything. And out of all the students he likes to humiliate … it just so happens that Lance is … his favorite ...”

“That's sick.” Pidge said with disgust.

They discussed the subject for a while, before stopping altogether as Lance was becoming visibly uncomfortable. To change the subject matter and distract Pidge from her thoughts, Hunk reluctantly brought up the cause of his sleepiness. The ghost.

He argued with her that it was real, but for every event that took place last night she came up with logical explanations. The glass ? Building tembled because of a lightining. Trash can ? Hallucination, or his foot pushed it away. Heat ? Storms made the temperature change. And so on.

“What about the pillows then ?!” He asked, frustrated.

“As I said you're probably the one who threw them off. Maybe you sleepwalked.” She said.

“I never sleepwalked ! Lance sleepwalks, not me !'

“Well ...” Shay hesiatated. “My brother sleepwalked once because of intense stress … maybe you have been feeling particularly anxious these last few days ?”

“Yeah,”Lance chimed in, apprently feeling better. “Because of the first day, the apartment, the movie, us arrriving late, your van breaking down ...”

Hunk finally gave in the idea that all this had just been his mind playing tricks on him.

After lunch, they headed towards the amphitheater once again, this time with small smiles on their faces, and sat in the front, Pidge following Lance everywhere, not wanting to experience this morning's inconveniences again.

The lecture took some time to start, the professor greeting the students and talking to them about the subjects they would be studying this year.

The overall atmosphere around them was much more peaceful, and Pidge found herself able to relax a little for the first time since this morning.

Next to her, Shay seemed to be listening and doodling at the same time, Lance and Hunk were taking notes and sometimes made jokes.

Near the end, Coran told them that the tutorial session tomorrow was to be cancelled, as he dimmed they hadn't learned enough things to be working on it yet. This announcement brought an array of relieved sighs, and the students were very happy when the time came to end the lecture.

Once they got out, they said goodbye to Shay for the day, and decided they would walk back to their apartment. On the way, Pidge asked her friends about the campus, that were all answered, and they stopped a few times on the way to pet some cats and dogs, or to just take in the scenery of a park they walked by.

After they opened the door to the apartment, they all went to different parts of it.

Pidge went on the sofa and arranged her notes on her laptop, her mind sometimes drifting off to invent ways of torturing Iverson, Hunk went to the kitchen to cook something to relax, and Lance went on the balcony to rest and feel the sun on his skin, all the while trying to decypher whatever notes he had taken on paper, trying very hard not to let the memories of this morning's event come back and taunt him.

They spent their afternoon doing various activities, either on their own or together, still getting used to the new place they were now living in.

Despite his friends protests, Hunk had decided he would cook as he didn't feel really tired anymore.

They ate while watching a soap opera, Lance being really into it, while Hunk laughed and Pidge groaned at some parts.

As midnight came by, they went to sleep, reassuring Hunk that last night's experiences would not happen again, and telling him not to hesitate should he need someone, as they would try to be vigilant that night.

The building and its surroundings went mostly silent after that.

 

* * *

In the middle of the night, a fire alarm went off. This time, all three of the inhabitants woke up. Lance burst out of his room first, and saw that a fire had started in the kitchen, near the hotplates. He ran in the utility room and took the extinguisher as Pidge and Hunk went out their rooms as well.

Hunk panicked, Pidge tried to make sense of what was happening and at the same time was trying to stay awake, while Lance sprayed the content of the extinguisher on the flames. In a matter of second, the fire all but disappeared, leaving only dark smoke that left the occupants coughing.

“What the hell.” He sighed as he lowered down the extinguisher and calmed down.

“How ? How did this happen ? I didn't leave anything on before we went to sleep … I think … did one of you touch anyhting ?” Hunk asked.

“No, I didn't go in the kitchen after we ate.” Lance said. “Pidge ?”

“Uh ? Oh, no … I don't touch kitchen stuff.” She answered with a yawn.

“Then how did this fire start ?” Hunk asked again.

“Well, if we check it out, we might find out.” Lance suggested.

He carefully approached the hotplates, one of which seemed to be still hot, and saw what seemed like remnants of paper.

Puzzled, he wonder where it came from and how it came here, but he remembered the notes he took on paper.

“Wait here a minute.” He said, his voice void of any expression.

The others did as he said, though they raised him questionning eyebrows, and watched as he dashed to his room.

“How did paper end up on the hot stoves at … “ She checked her watch. “... 3 AM ?”

“Wait …” Hunk said, turning pale. “Is it really 3 AM ?”

“Yes, why ?”

“That's the same time I was woken up yesterday ...” He slowly realized, voice trembling.

“Hey, come on, don't freak out now. Ghosts aren't real, remember ?” Pidge said.

“Yeah, you're right ...” He sighed, before changing the subject. “I wonder what Lance is doing, he has been in his room for quite some time.”

“Yeah, maybe he fell asleep again ?”

“Hey Lance !”Hunk shouted. “What are you doing man ?”

He was answered by a scream, and Lance shortly came running out of his room and shook him up, yelling about the now burnt down papers being his notes, as he couldn't find them.

“Uh. Guess you sleepwalked.” Pidge concluded.

“Wha-Pidge, no, I never do such complicated tasks when sleepwalking, and this place is new to me ! I ran into walls back in my house ! I would have never been able to do all the things needed to take my notes from my bag, put it on the hotplates, turn them on, and go back to sleep !”

“You never know. The human mind is something extremely complicated and-”

“Watch out !” Hunk screamed as he tackled Pidge to the ground, effectively ducking spoons that had been thrown at them.

“What the-!”Pidge exclaimed, ready to snap at Hunk before fully realizing what had just happened. “What the hell was that ?!”

All at once, the kitchen cupboards started opening and closing by themselves, and more spoons were thrown at them. The lights started to flicker, and they dashed out of it, Lance screaming as a knife grazed his hair.

The activity in the kitchen then stopped completely, and they suddenly felt very cold, before the pillows in the living room started hovering and began to throw themselves at them. They all screamed once again and ran to Hunk's room, which was the closest.

Once in there, Hunk started packing his things, urging his friends to do the same, which they quickly did. They met back in his room, and Lance profusely apologized for not believing him, Pidge being in too much of a shock to say anything.

They decided on escaping the apartment and try and find somewhere to sleep in for the night, Pidge getting out of her stupor, offering to text her brother to ask for permission to use his own appartment.

Eventually they got a response, Matt not caring to know about why they needed it, and dashed out of the appartment, trying to avoid any flying objects coming their way.

They ran down the stairs and allowed themselves to breathe once they got out on the street, being creeped out seeing the lights of their apartment flickering from the outside.

When they entered Matt's place, they sighed in relief and rushed to switch all the lights on. They tried to sleep on the floor and couch, but were too scared and restless to relax.

Pidge was getting bored and impatient, so she took out her laptop from her bag and began searching for paronormal and ghost hunting websites, getting her friends' interest, as they were equally bored. The first one she stumbled upon was [www.galra-inc.com](http://www.galra-inc.com/), and she clicked on it. Empty places where ads would have been covered most of the page, the middle showing the links to the different sections.

She browsed through some of them, and clicked on the most promising one : _How to know that you are being haunted and what to do if you are._

She scrolled down unecessary explanations and the advertising of ghost-hunting equipment to the part that interested her most.

Lance and Hunk got close to the screen, and the latter started reading the page out loud.

_Should you be haunted by a ghost, our best recommandations would be to hire one of our employees to get rid of it permanently, as a spirit being handled by a non-professional could get out of the place they are haunting for some time, but come back later._

_If you are unwilling to pay money, you can still try and get rid of it yourself, either by using one of our products (see above), or by other means._

_Most common haunting comes from residual haunting and intelligent haunting._

_Residual Haunting._

_Residual haunting is often associated with a tragic event that took place in the past, said event taking place over and over, with only slight variations taking place, the spirit of the deceased being stuck in a loop, and often not aware that he has died. If the paranormal activity you experience seems to be repeating itself, then you might just be the victim of residual haunting._

_The best way to stop this haunting is to-_

“Okay, so the events we experienced were different than what Hunk told us, so this isn't it. What's next ? “ Lance concluded.

Pidge scrolled down and came to a stop at the next paragraph.

_Intelligent haunting._

_Intelligent haunting is different from the previous form, as the ghost is aware of their surroundings and of itself. They also have control over their environment and usually move objects and throw them around. They are the most known, as they are the most portrayed in ghost stories._

_They are not to be confused with poltergeists, who are mostly triggered by people. If the paronormal activity happens because someone walks into the haunted room, then you are dealing with a poltergeist. These are very communicative and make a lot more noises and paranormal activity than average ghosts, and can be very dangerous, more so than the common ghosts. If you think this is the case, don't try to act on your own._

_They also are not to be confused with demonic haunting, that involves severe physical assaults. Had you been physically assaulted by an unseen entity, it is most likely to be a demon._

_These two are dangerous as their goal is to weaken the mind of their victims in order to possess and do harm. We highly recommend hiring a specialist should any of your experiences fit the previous descriptions._

“Hmmm … Hunk wasn't in the kitchen when the fire started, and we have not been physically assaulted … so I think we are dealing with intelligent haunting.” Pidge said.

“What a relief !” Hunk sighed. “I was scared it was something evil !”

“Not evil ?!” Lance exclaimed indignantly. “That asshole ghost burned my notes down and tried to kill me with a knife !”

“I'm sure it didn't mean it ...” Hunk tried to explain to him.

“Yeah, right.”

“So, now that we know what we're dealing with, let's see how to get rid of it.” Pidge exclaimed before yawning a little.

“Yes ! The sooner the better !” Lance said entusiastically.

After reading the whole page, they came to the conclusion that the ghost that haunted them previously owned the place and was bound to it by something, either by belongings, emotional attachement, or that it stayed there because it was its place of death -which they found was the most common reason of intelligent haunting-, or all of the previous reasons combined. They also deduced that this spirit was probably disturbed by their arrival.

They decided they would try and find out who the previous owner was, and get rid of anything that tied them to the place.

“Well, I don't care if we disturbed them. They're dead. They don't own anything anymore.” Lance said between yawns. “Plus, they're an ass.”

“Dude.” Hunk said, almost whispering.”What if they died in there ? Holy- we live in a place where someone died !”

“Hunk, I think most residential places in the world witnessed deaths, unfortunately.” Pidge said.

“Maybe that's why the cupboard is condemned ! Maybe the body is in there, and Shiro killed that person because they weren't paying their rent ! And now he is going to kill us too ! That's why the price was so cheap, he wanted to lure us in ! And the ghost is trying to chase us out before Shiro gets to us !”

Both his friends looked at him like they had seen … a ghost.

“Hunk, go to sleep, you're being delusional. I know Shiro and he isn't a serial killer.” Pidge told him.

“I'm not-”

“Buddy, come on.” Lance said. “Let's sleep, okay ? You're tired, I'm tired, we're all tired, and now that we know how to get rid of that ghost, I think I can sleep. Come on man, it's 6 AM, we roughly have only three hours of sleep left.”

He then proceeded to try and sleep on the floor once again, using his jacket as a pillow. Hunk followed suit, having calmed down a bit.

Tired as they were, it didn't take long before they drifted off to sleep, despite their uncomfortable sleeping positions.

Pidge stayed a bit longer on her laptop, before shutting it off and making herself comfortable on the sofa, watching her sleeping friends out of the corner of her eye, as she too fell asleep.

Tomorrow, they would call Shiro and get to the bottom of this.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _If there's something weird, and it don't look good, who you're gonna call ? ... GALRA !_  
>  Yeeaaah ... doesn't sound as good.  
> -  
> Welp, this took longer to write than expected.
> 
> So, I am not really happy with how it came out but ... Oh well ...
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading !


	3. Chapter 3

It was 9 AM when they woke up.

They were a bit disoriented at first, but were quickly on their feet when last night's events came rushing back in their memory. They cleaned themsleves up a bit, gathered their stuff, and Pidge took a last look around her brother's place before they went on their way to the stairs, and out of the building.

“Man, I hope we manage to get rid of that nuisance of a ghost, and for good … I won't survive the year if I feel like this every morning ...” Lance whined.

“You're telling me.” Hunk yawned, cracking his back.

Lance cracked a sorry smile at his best friend, and Pidge chuckled, a little bit embarassed.

“I can't believe you really were frightened by a ghost. I'm sorry for not taking you seriously, Hunk.” She apologized.

“It's okay. I know it sounded crazy, so … I didn't really count on anyone believing me.” He reassured her. “And even I doubted my judgement. I never believed in ghosts, even when I was little. But Lance did” He chuckled at the memories, turning to Lance.

“Hey, that was one time ! Okay, three. But I was young and impressionable … and my older siblings and cousins were jerks ...” He recalled.

On their way to the bus stop, they tried to talk about other subjects. Pidge bragged about her levels and records in some online games, Lance tried to recall a minor event that happened in the summer that he forgot to tell them about, and Hunk told them how excited he was for the release of the cartoon version of a book series he had been reading for years now.

After a ten minute ride in the bus, they got to their destination.

By the time they sat and grabbed their stuff, waiting for Coran to start his lecture, they had almost forgotten all about last night's encounter, until Shay came along to greet them.

“Hello you guys ! Oh my- You all look exhausted ! What happened ?” She asked worriedly.

“Uh ? Oh yes, yes, we um … see, Hunk wanted to cook for us last night and uh … he was so tired he left the hotplates on and … the kitchen counter kinda went up in flames in the middle of the night.” Lance tried to lie as best as he could, while trying to ignore Hunk's hurt stares.

“Oh, that's unfortunate. Do you have an insurance for these kinds of incidents ? My father could repair it for free if you wanted ...” She offered.

“That would be great, but … we've already asked for someone to come and take a look at it this morning.” Pidge said quite nervously.

“I see. Well, now you at least know you can ask me if you need any help one day ! And, Hunk.” She said, turning to the boy who seemed to be quite upset. “Don't worry about it. It even happens to the best ! You had a rough night and a rough day, so it's normal to forget to do simple things. Plus I think it's remarkable that you willingly cooked for your friends. They are lucky to have you by their side.”

At that, Hunk visibly flushed and started to fidget, before murmuring “Thanks.”.

“Yeah, we do.” Lance admitted, grinning at his friend's embarassement. “And he is a wonderful cook. Seriously, you should come by and grab a bite or something one of these days !”

“Really ? Well if you ever want to invite me, I'd gladly come over. I love well-cooked food, and I like learning about new recipes.” Shay said.

“Be sure not to give him too many compliments if you ever do come, though. He has trouble handling them, as you can see right there ...” He said flashing a taunting smile at his flushing best friend, who tried to ignore him.

Hunk was saved from more taunting as Pidge shut Lance off by stating that the professor was about to speak.

Trough the two hour long lecture, they stayed mostly silent, safe for a few jokes or remarks about what Coran was saying, which was a jumble of planets, star systems, black holes and other astronomical entities.

An “All right, class dismissed. See you on friday.” marked the end of the lecture, and, at the same time, the end of the day.

Pidge asked if Shay wanted to go eat with them again, but she kindly declined as her brother was waiting to pick her up.

The trio ate at the cafeteria, and as the minutes passed by they became apprehensive, remembering they had a haunting problem to take care of.

Once they finished, they went into a corner in a rather remote and deserted part of the campus to call Shiro.

“All right, so, who's calling him ?” Lance asked.

“I say Hunk calls him. He is the one who got into contact to buy the apartment. So it would be logical.” Pidge said.

“Okay, I'm calling him with my phone, but I know you guys will join in on the conversation anyway, so why is it such a big deal ?” Hunk asked, perplexed.

His friends shrugged in response as he dialed Shiro's number.

“Hello ? Is this … Hunk ? How are you ?”

“Hello, yes, it's Hunk. I'm fine. I hope you are too … I just … I just wanted to know something about ...”

“About the apartment ?”

“Yes, more specifically, his previous owner ?” He tried to asked as normally as possible.

Shiro fell silent at that, and Hunk looked at his friends, confused. They seemed to be as equally confused, so they weren't much help.

“Shiro ?” He tried. “Did the connection fail ?”

“No, no it's not that … forget about it, okay ? Now, what is you want to know about him, and why ?” He asked, trying to change the subject.

“So we know it's a he.” Pidge said, writing down things in her notepad.

“Who was that talking just now ?” Shiro asked over the phone.

“That was just Pidge.” Hunk said.

“Pidge ? … you mean Katie ? Katie Holt ?”

“The one and only.” Pidge said, standing proudly.

“Wow, it's … it's been a while. Heard Matt went to England, how is he doing ?”

“He was doing alright a couple of days ago, so I guess that hasn't changed.” She answered him.

“That's great. Hope the rest of your family is doing fine too ...” He said with a grim tone that Pidge was quick to catch onto.

“Are you alright ? You sound … somber. And I mean more than what I remember.” She asked with worry.

“You heard that uh ?” He said with a sigh. “ I just lost someone close to me a few months ago and … I didn't really … get over it yet.”

“Oh, I'm … I'm sorry to hear that, Shiro.” Pidge said.

“Me too.” Hunk added.

“My condolences … “ Lance finished.

“It's okay, no need for that …” Shiro almost chuckled, yet his his voice still felt sad. “ I should have already stopped grieving, it's just … his death was so sudden …”

“Can I ask why ?” Pidge said hesitantly.

“He commited suicide.” That shocked the trio of friends. “Everything seemed to be alright with him and then one day … just like that … he didn't answer my texts and calls and … I found him dead, locked up in the cupboard ...” Shiro seemed to be starting to cry.

“That's alright, no need for details. And no need for a trip down memory lane either … just … calm down. Please.” Pidge asked frantically, having never heard Shiro sounding so weak before.

They gave him some time to compose himself again, before Hunk tried to talk.

“So … is this why the cupboard is off-limits ?” He asked carefully, before being struck with a terrifying mental image. “Is the body still inside ?!”

“Ew ... Hunk !” Lance said, disgusted.

“Yes … and of course, no ...” Shiro said slowly, though he seemed more amused than offended. “It's simply off-limits because some … traces of what happened haven't been properly removed. On that note, there also might be a few boxes or belongings that I have forgotten to remove in my haste to get away from it all ...”

“I don't think we've seen any … but if we find some we'll be sure to bring them to you … if you want.” Pidge offered. “Also, I think we got all we needed to know for now … so what do you say about ending this call ?”

“I'm okay with both of these things. I hope you will be able to come back to the apartment despite what I've said …” Shiro said sheepishly.

“Don't worry. It's not like his soul will come back from the dead to haunt the place, right ?” Pidge joked, glancing sideways at her friends.

Shiro laughed at that, and they said goodbye before ending the call.

The trio then walked to the bus stop, still apprehensive, but also ecstatic at the prospect of being able to have a good night's sleep once they'll get rid of the boxes. Pidge talked excitedly about how she couldn't believe she had met a real life ghost before aliens, cryptids, or any other thing that she considered way more probable science-wise.

However she stayed silent throughout the ride home, looking out the windows at the buildings the bus passed by and listening absent-mindedly in on her friends' conversation, trying to remember the names of Shiro's friends or relatives, to no avail.

As they walked to their residential building, all of them felt silent, looking at their place with dread. The elevator was out of order still, so they had to take the stairs, Lance being the first in line. They sometimes got startled by the creaking sounds some of their steps made, and were all feeling uneasy to some degree.

In front of the door, they decided on choosing who would be the first to go in by playing rock-paper-scissors. Lance lost, and groaned, taking his key and opening the door slowly, putting an hesitant step into the corridor. He took some other steps and reached the living room, his friends behind him.

He peeked at the room, feeling on edge, and went inside, checking in on everything, as the others did the same, feeling as nervous as he was.

They started to calm down once they realized that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, safe for the stuff thrown around the night before.

They decided to clean up the mess, and once they did they split up to try and find the boxes.

Hunk searched the kitchen, Pidge searched the utility room and the bathroom, while Lance went to inspect the bedrooms.

The kitchen didn't have anything to hide, so Hunk started searching around the living room, Pidge informing them that the boxes could very well be hidden in the floor or the ceiling. She herself didn't find much, safe for a loose tire in a rather inaccessible corner in the first room she checked.

Lance got out of her room empty-handed, and headed to his own to continue his inspection, as Hunk informed him he didn't find anything.

The search was beginning to look unfructuous, until Lance spotted something out of the corner of his eye. The flooring under his room's cupboard looked out of place compared to the flooring in the other rooms, and it definitely had a crack on the side.

He bent down, and tried to remove the flooring strips, and managed to do so with little to no effort, revealing two previously hidden boxes.

He called his friends over as he started digging into the boxes, finding items that looked like they would belong to a vampire rather than a human.

When Hunk and Pidge arrived, the former stayed away from the boxes while the latter went on to dig around the box that Lance had left untouched. She found a black leather necklace with spikes and immediately tried it on, looking at her reflection in Lance's mirror.

“Isn't that for dogs ?” Lance asked her, trying to stifle his laughter.

“Ignoramuses tend to think so, yes.” She retorted snarkily.

“Igno-what now ?” The boy didn't wait for a detailed explanation from Pidge, and instead brought out two matching spiked bracelets. “Oh, I see now. Who would wear such a thing ?”

“Well I would.” She said, slightly offended. “If my parents let me, of course … but as a matter of fact, they're not here. Plus it makes people look “cool”, and I bet your instagram followers or whatever would love that.” She added, exaggerating the last few words.

Lance's eyes lit up at that and he put on a challenging smirk, trying on the bracelets.

“Hey, you're right. That does make people look cool. Man I look great.” He said making silly poses in front of the mirror and stealing a small laugh from Pidge.

“Guys ...” Came Hunk's nervous voice. “I don't think we should be doing that … we're basically digging into some dead guy's supposedly private stuff, whose ghost happens to haunt our apartment !”

“Relax Hunk, it's the middle of the day, that ghost wont come out anytime soon.” Lance said.

“Yeah, Lance is right. Let's have a bit of fun, that guy had some really cool stuff like … like an oversized … belt ?” She asked to herself, incredulous. “What could that be for ?”

She jabbed Lance harshly in the ribs after he snickered and made perverted gestures to answer her question, leaving him on the ground for some time.

“Here's another one ...” She muttered upon finding another oversized belt.

“Well, he has a really weird fashion sense, so maybe he liked to put on belts that were way too big for him ?” Hunk deduced.

“That must be it, Hunk. Bless thy partly innocent mind.” She said, looking back at Lance who was rubbing his hurt chest. “As a prize, you can wear it.” She added, handing the belt to Hunk.

“Uh … guys ?” Lance said in a meek voice.

“What ? No way ! I'm not really fine with you putting on someone else's belongings, so I'm not going to do it.” He protested, trying to give the belt back to Pidge.

“Guys ?” Lance said, louder this time, sounding stressed.

“Hunk, he is dead. If we go through the trouble of finding these boxes to get rid of the ghost that tormented us, I think it's only fair we have a little fun doing it.” She tried to explain to him, dodging his attempts at giving her the belt back.

“Guys ?!” Lance sounded scared now, his breathing clearly uneven.

“I don't care, that's still irrespectuous ! How would you like people meddling with your laptop after you became a ghost ?” Hunk replied.

“Well I-”

“ **Guys !** ” This time, Lance screamed. Effectively interrupting his friends' argument, causing them to turn around and see the source of Lance's panick. Which made them as equally scared.

There, at the entrance of the room, stood a menacing figure, partially masked, much more clear and much more real than what they had been experiencing.

“Holy macaroni. That's the ghost. We can see him clearly, what the-” Was all Hunk was able to say as the specter started charging them and he screamed alongside his friends.

They tried to run away, scattering through the room. Lance cursed as his knee bumped into his bedframe, and tried to run to the door through which Hunk had already gone.

He looked behind himself to check on Pidge, and found that she was about to be attacked by the ghost.With no hesitation, he went to try and tackle the ghost to the ground, which, surprisingly, worked, buying enough time for Pidge to dash out of the room. As he tried to keep the ghost down despite his entire body shaking from both fear and the fact that said ghost felt extremely cold, he got distracted by his friends' frantic voices shouting that the door had been locked and they couldn't find the key. The ghost chose this moment to go out of his seemingly corporeal state and slip through Lance's grasp. Or, more specifically, go through Lance's body to escape his grasp.At this point, the boy thought he was going to faint, either from fear, or from that menacing piece of furniture floating upon his head, ready to strike him.

He ducked it at the last moment and ran to his friends, the ghost following after him.

“Lance ! Watch out ! He's behind you !” Pidge screamed pointing to their tormentor's position.

“W-where ?” Hunk stuttered desperatly. “I don't see any ghost !”

“What do you mean ?! He's right there ! You could see him a minute ago, how come … wait, where's your belt ?” Pidge noticed.

“Guys, now is not the time to go back into that argument !” Lance yelled trying to foil the ghost's attempts at catching up with him.

“Wait a minute Lance ! And keep distracting him ! I'm trying to figure something out !” She instructed her friend.

“Are you serious ?! He's trying to kill me over there !” Lance protested, cursing once again as his other knee hit the table in the living room.

Pidge acted on her plan, taking off the necklace she wore and putting it on the floor, and found she couldn't see the ghost anymore. But the minute she took it in her hands, he was visible.

“Hunk, if you want to be able to see the ghost, put on that belt !” She ordered.

“What if I don't want to see it !”

“Just do it, Hunk !”

And he did. And he went to cower in a corner as Lance made their way to them, nearly out of breath and sweating, rubbing his swollen knees, the ghost still close behind him.

As the spirit approched, Pidge took one step forward, and it seemed to catch his interest.

“Listen up. I don't know who you are, but I know you used to own the apartment. The thing is, you died, so Shiro let us buy it. I'm sorry we digged aound in your personal stuff, but it's only fair with what you did to us.” She said as calmly as possible, and the ghost visibly calmed down when she mentioned Shiro.

“You … know Shiro ?” The ghost said after removing the bandana that he used as a mask, startling his audience.

“He can talk.” Hunk said in a meek and scared voice.

“Yes ? I mean, Hunk knows him because he's the one who contacted him to buy the place, though him and Lance already knew him as a P.A., and I know him because he's been a friend of my brother for a few years now.” Pidge said, genuinely interested at the prospect of having a conversation with that science-defying phenomenon.

“Your brother ? Is your brother named Matt ?” The ghost carefully asked.

“Yes ? His name is Matthew Holt. I'm Katie Holt, but everyone calls me Pidge.” She tried to greet, but the spirit backed away and turned around, head seemingly hung down in shame.

“Was it something I said ?” Pidge whispered, turning to her friends.

“No … I mean I don't think so ?” Hunk whispered back, scratching his head.

Lance stayed silent, looking intently at the ghost before them.

“Lance ? What are you doing ?” Pidge asked him quietly.

“Uh ? Oh no it's just … he really reminds me of someone … must be the mullet ...” He answered in the same tone of voice.

“The mullet ?” Hunk asked, mostly to himself, looking again at the ghost to see it for himself.

“Wait … That's it ! I know who this guy is … was … is ?” Lance hesisated.

“Who ?” Pidge asked, curious.

“Keith Kogane !” He said, a little louder than he intended to, catching the spirit's attention.

“What ? … How do you know my name ? Who are you ?” Keith asked, raising his voice.

“Uh, the name's Lance, mullet. We shared the same classes at the Garisson ?” Lance asked defiantly.

“Who's that guy ?” Pidge asked Hunk as quietly as possible, not tearing her eyes away from the exchange between the two.

“Someone Lance considered his rival or something last year … rumors say he flunked out of the Garisson because of discipline issues ...” Hunk told her nonchalantly.

“Oh …” Was all Pidge could mutter.

“I don't think I know you. But the Garrison ? I think I remember applying to it but ...” Keith started, looking quite lost and confused.

“Well maybe you shouldn't have, dropout.” Lance said nastily.

“What ?” The ghost asked, dumbfounded.

“You don't remember ? You flunked out of it, mullet.”

“No I don't, and stop calling me that you-

He didn't get to finish his sentence, as Pidge went to stop them from taking their argument any further, pushing them aside, surprised by how cold the ghost felt on her hand

“Alright, that's enough. Let's be civil to one another.” She said. “Lance, what's your problem ?!”

“He's my problem !” Lance said irritated.

“Lance, come on. This is ridiculous. So what if he doesn't remember you ? I don't remember half of our classmates !” Hunk said, slightly irked by the situation.

Hunk continued to try and calm Lance down, while Pidge focused on Keith.

“So, you don't remember the end of the first year ?” She asked him cautiously, still intrigued about him being a ghost.

“No … To be honest I don't remember going to the Garrison at all ...” He said, scratching his head, visibly trying to look for any memories of last year.

“What is your farthest memory then ?” She asked, even more curious than she was a few moments ago.

“I just remember joining the Garrison and buying this apartment … and then you guys came in and it annoyed me… that's all …” He said shrugging.

“That's … that's a pretty serious memory loss … you don't even remember commiting suicide ?” She said without thinking.

“What ?!” Keith almost yelled, alarmed.

“Hey, calm down. Shiro told us he found you locked up in the cupboard, dead, and that you supposedly took your own life.” She tried to explain.

“He told you that ? But I … I'd never do that !” He said, panicking a little.

“You never know … maybe something bad happened to you last year ? Apart from being flunked out, I mean.”

“No … No. And no matter how bad my life could have gotten, I would have never left Shiro behind. I'm telling you. There is no way I did that.” He affirmed.

“Well I can't exactly believe that given the circumstances of your … death … but I can give you the benefice of the doubt, if that's any consolation.” She said, awkwardly trying to comfort him.

Keith seemed even more lost than he had previously been, and flew out to retreat into the cupboard where his body had been found, without a word.

Lance had been talked some sense into by Hunk, and was now less adamant on the ghost's case, even though he was still sulking.

Pidge explained to them what she had dicovered, which picked their interest. Out of compassion, Hunk offered that they'd help Keith get his memory back, while letting him hang out at their place. Pidge agreed and Lance tried to oppose to it, but quickly gave in the idea when he understood that his friends wouldn't change their minds.

For the rest of the afternoon, Keith stayed hidden, so the three friends made themselves comfortable, safe for Lance who was busy grunting and putting the floorboard back into place. He tried to work to distract himself from thinking about how Keith was basically a new annoying roommate he would have to deal with, but failed, and decided on letting his frustration out, punching his pillows.

“I can't believe that guy … always in my face ! What's my problem ? What's **his** problem, you mean !” He ranted and raved, talking to himself. “First he ignores me all year long, like he's too good to talk to me or something, then he dies and comes back as a ghost to burn my stuff down and try to kill me ! Twice ! And now I'm supposed to accept the fact he'll be “living” with us ?!”

He let himself fall on his bed, huffing out loudly in frustration.

“It's okay, Lance.” He told himself. “This may just be temporary. I bet they wont be able to stand him.”

With that thought, he got back to work, before taking his laptop to spend the rest of the afternoon on social media.

As the night approached, they gathered to eat. Hunk wanted to watch a cartoon, so they did.

Keith went out of his hiding spot when they were cleaning the table. He cautiously approached them, trying to talk but refraining on doing so.

Hunk saw his distress and started the conversation, informing him on what they had decided. This made Keith smile a little, and he uttered a quiet “Thanks.”.

Pidge asked him if they could keep the things they stole from him, to be able to see him, and he accepted. Even though Lance could have kept only one of the bracelets, he kept both, claiming that if Keih tried to take one away from him, he'd at least have the other to be able to see him still. This made the others look at him funny, before they turned back to the ghost and asked him not to scare them anymore, which he also accepted.

Keith also set a few rules, and they included no partying in the apartment without his consent. This only irked Lance a little further, though he tried not to show it and let the others agree to his demands without muttering a single word.

When all was said and done, they went to bed, tired by last night's events, and Keith went back to the cupboard.

Pidge was a little too excited from the day's discoveries, and Lance was downright pissed off, so they took more time than Hunk to finallly drift off into the world of dreams.

But for the first time since the first night they spent in the apartment, they all were able to sleep peacefully until morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I always end my chapters with them going to sleep ?
> 
>  _Is it because I'm tired ?_  
>  -  
> Finally, the real story can begin. Pfew. I am getting kinda tired of describing day-to-day routine already, so I hope I can quickly get to the part where I can tell the story in weeks and months instead of days ...
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter, have a good day/night, and thanks for your time !


	4. Chapter 4

They had english at 9AM this morning, so they prepared like any other mornings.

Except this morning, a ghost was sitting on the couch.

Lance glared at him when he got out of his room and to the kitchen, Hunk yelped and then apologized, and Pidge greeted him, her mind foggy, before walking back and double-checking that the ghost was still real and still there.

Keith watched them without a word. He had nothing better to do so he absentmindedly watched them eating their breakfast.

But he stopped after he dodged a spoon thrown by a very pissed cuban.

They were late, so Pidge screamed and almost fell on her own steps trying to multitask, while the boys seemed like they couldn't care less.

They started to care, however, when she pushed them to the door, Hunk protesting he didn't take his bag, Lance practically screaming that he didn't cover up his bags.

When he heard the door being shut, and the screams dimming down, Keith huffed a small breath. Finally, he was alone.

However, he had nothing to do. Most of his own stuff had been removed, and he didn't have a phone or a laptop.

He started roaming aimlessly around the apartment, going through things that the living would have bumped into and tried to make heavy stuff float, which he found he couldn't after a painful try. Who knew that ghosts could get hurt ?

Bored, he first tried to count his heartbeats that were somewhat still there, but felt really slow. He wasn't even sure if they were real or if he was just imagining them out of habit. The sensation felt extremely weird, but at least it helped pass the time.

After a while he stopped, and decided to give another try to something he had wanted to do ever since he first “woke up”.

He looked at the wall that separated this place from the neighbour's, and tried to go through it, only to be pushed back by an invisible force. Again. He grunted in frustration, and flew to the door full force, being blown away in the opposite direction when he reached it.

He absolutely hated this situation. He liked his alone time, but he also like his independence. And he would rather pass his spare time outside of the city than stuck in an apartment in the middle of it.

At the moment, he felt like a lion trapped in a cage. It had been days, he had to get out somehow.

Desperate, he went on the balcony and tried to jump from it, but was pulled back onto it. He went on the roof and found he couldn't go past the limits of the apartment beneath it. So he decided on laying there.

After a few hours, the movements of the clouds, the free flight of the passing birds, the feeling of the wind swirling over his body and the noises of life coming from the neighbourhood made him slightly depressed, so he went back inside

The clock read 1 PM, so the people he now had to call roommates would be back soon, wouldn't they ?

He waited another hour and nobody came.

Annoyed and feeling a weird twinge in his heart, he headed to the cupboard and entered it.

The inside was pitch black, and even though Keith was a ghost now, he couldn't see. He didn't know where the light switch was, nor did he care.

He stayed there without moving an inch, and let his mind go blank.

* * *

 

After coming back to his senses, he got out of the cupboard and went to check on the time. It was 5 PM, and none of them had returned. He went back into his trance-like state, and wandered around the living room.

The sound of the front door opening got him out of his occupation, and he peeked his head through the walls to see who it was.

As it turned out, Pidge had just came back from wherever she had been, he greeted her with a quiet “Hi.” and she yelped in response, startled to see his head coming out of nowhere.

“What were you doing ?” He asked her nonchalantly.

“Studying. Informatics. Why ?”

“Oh it's… nothing ...” He said before letting his curiosity get the better of him.“Where are the others ?”

“Lance has swimming classes and Hunk is giving a tour of the campus to Shay.” She explained before putting on a smirk. “ Wait a minute … did you miss us ?”

“Of course not.” He scoffed.

“Oh, please. You totally did.” She concluded.

The ghost stayed silent after that, and simply watched her get her stuff out of her bag and onto the living room table. She turned her laptop on and looked at him. He didn't show any emotion, so she carried on with whatever it was she was doing, before turning to him again.

“I'm going to blast some music from my playlist, and I want to inform you that if you don't like it, I wont care.”

With that, a melody came out of the speakers as she started writing things on a website. A melody that Keith recognized.

“Wait … that song, I know I heard it before it's … it's ...” Keith tried to remember its name.

“Genus Unknown.” Pidge said smiling.

“Yes that's it !” He said excitedly, before composing himself.

Pidge laughed a bit at that.

“It's a song about Mothman, but I think you might already know that.” She said. “I'm writing an article on him on my blog, because my readers have been requesting that for quite some time now.”

“Really ?” He asked, his face lighting up. “Sorry, Mothman is just my favourite cryptid, right before Bigfoot, I guess.”

“Oh, that's so cool !” She exclaimed. “To be honest I only learned about him a few years ago, so I don't have a lot of information on him.”

“Well I could help you if you wanted ...” He offered, looking to the side and crossing his arms. “I went to Point Pleasant quite a few times … “

“That's great ! Have you ever been to the festival ?” She inquired him.

“Yep. Plenty of times.” He answered, before looking off in the distance. “Shiro must have some pictures with him …”

“Well … maybe I could ask him for them ? Anyway, that would be for a later time. I feel like my readers will kill me if I don't update soon.” She said rather quickly, getting back to work.

“So you have a conspiracy blog ?” He asked, leaning over her shoulder.

“Yes. Now, don't laugh, but my username is Pidgeon. It is purely ironic. I despise that nickname.” She said in the most serious and disgusted tone ever.

“Oh ...” Keith said, not really understanding what the deal was with this nickname. “And … what made you create this blog ?”

“I got the inspiration by following Mothfan's blog. I like their stuff. They're also the reason I know about Mothman, and why I haven't talked about him yet. I felt like it would be plagiarisim …” She babbled, before talking to herself. “I'm kinda wondering why they stopped updating … it's been months already ...”

Keith couldn't hold back his snickers.

“What ?” She asked defiantly.

“I'm sorry to tell you, but Mothfan is dead.” Keith said, still laughing a bit.

“What ?!” She yelled in alarm. “How do you know that ?! Nobody on the internet knows what happened to them !”

“Well, I do. And trust me, nobody in the world knows Mothfan better than I do.”

At that, Pidge felt silent and simply stared at him for what felt like a minute, before something started to form in her mind.

“Wait a minute … you just said you love Mothman, Mothfan loves him too, you said you've gone to Point Pleasant and its festival a lot of times, you know the song I played, you just told me Mothfan's dead and you … you are … dead … you're ...”

Keith couldn't hold his laughter back anymore, and Pidge's eyes opened as wide as humanely possible.

“HOLY CRUD. Oh my freaking god ! I can't believe-how ? HOW ?!” Pidge shouted, both confused and thrilled, gripping at her hair. “You are Mothfan ! You. Are. Mothfan ! You're a legend ! And I'm here, and you're here, and-”

“Okay, okay, calm down … I don't really want you to join me in death or something ...” He said, worried she might pass out. “But, yes, I am Mothfan. Also that name was a mistake.”

“Are you kidding ? That's the best of names !” Pidge said, still excited but a lot more calm.

“If you say so. Now, how about we write that article ? What do you say about a collab ?”

“That would be great ! Oh my gosh, yes !” Pidge practically screamed with joy.

They got on with their work after that, and eventually drifted off from it, talking about all their theories and such, Pidge gushing about Keith's work, while he simply listened with a small smile.

“You know, the most ironic thing is that you said you firmly didn't believe ghosts were a thing !” She recalled. “And here you are, as a ghost !”

“Yeah … I would have really liked being right on that one ...” He said rather bitterly.

“Uh ? What's the matter ?”

“Nothing, it's just … I'd rather be dead-dead than … this.” He sighed, gesturing to himself. “Not only are people unable to see me, but I can't get out of this place, no matter how hard I try.”

“Hey, we're here to keep you company if you want … and we can see you. By the way, how can we see you ? I get that these things ...” She said, trying to get a better look at the necklace she was wearing. “Let us see you when we are wearing or touching them … but I don't get how it works.”

“Well, do you have a theory ?” He asked her.

“I don't know … it's kinda farfetched …” She hesitated. “I think it has to do with emotional value or something ...”

“I think so too. I was kinda attached to these things, that's why I hid them. Shiro wanted to get rid of them last year when I got here.” Keith explained.

“Why would he want to get rid of them ?” Pidge wondered out loud.

“As you said … they have an ... **emo** tional … value.” He said, his voice letting on a double-meaning.

“Oooh, I see … you got out of a phase then ?” She chuckled. “I bet Shiro was just jealous.”

“Yeah. He never really went out of **his** phase.”

“The infamous 'I want to die' quotes and jokes and all, am I right ?” She chuckled.

Keith chuckled along, but shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. Pidge seemed to know Shiro quite well, although he had never really heard of her, he only knew of her brother.

He thought back to the events of the day before. He could have hurt her if her friend hadn't interposed between them. Which would have been a shame, as they both seemed to get along quite well, and had the same hobbies.

Speaking of her friend … Lance was it ? … he didn't understand why he was upset about the Garrison thing, he didn't even know what it was about, but he understood he deserved a bit of his anger after what he had done to him. Although he had targeted all of them to try and get them to leave him alone, he had felt this urge to hurt him the most, for no apparent reason. Maybe this had to do with last year ? How would he know …

Despite his mixed feelings, he agreed with himself that that guy was probably just a jerk who took things out of proportions, as it seemed that what happened between them wasn't that big of a deal.

He was taken out of his inner thoughts by Pidge's hand gripping his arm, asking him for help on the article she was trying to finish.

Once they were done, Pidge updated her blog and decided to verify her theories on their ability to see Keith.

To do so, she went back on the GALRA website they had discovered. She read that a lot of ghosts can be seen by bearers of items that held an emotional value to the deceased, or by people with the natural ability to see ghosts, such as mediums, children, or even animals.

She then went to search how a ghost could get out of their place of death, but she found nothing to work with, to Keith's dismay.

“It's alright, we'll think of something. Maybe it's temporary ?” She tried to comfort him.

“Maybe ...” He said with little to no enthusiasm.

They couldn't drag their conversation any longer, as the front door opened, and Lance entered the room. At the sight of them sitting close together on the sofa, he stopped, and smirked at Pidge.

“So … I leave you alone for a little more than an hour, and you're already on your way to become someone's ghoul-friend ?” He said, apparently proud of himself.

A pillow was thrown at him from a very offended girl.

“Hey ! What was that for ?” Lance feigned being hurt.

“First, I don't do romance. Second, that pun was so awful I should call the police and have you arrested.” She stated, crossing her arms.

“And why would I be arrested ? I didn't break any laws.” He pointed out,

“You broke the laws of your overlord, and by that I mean me, now bow down, peasant.” Pidge ordered.

“As you wish, lord Pidgeon.” He played along.

That last bit of taunting earned him another pillow in the face, that was granted Keith's approving whistle.

Lance laughed with Pidge, and then glared at Keith a bit, which shook the ghost a little, before he turned around to go bother Hunk who had just come back.

“I see why you dislike that nickname.” Keith said, sounding more bitter than he intended.

“Uh ? Oh, no, Lance can be annoying at times with his tendency to tease, but to be fair I tease him too.” Pidge said before realizing the tone he used. “And … he's usually a super friendly guy with a good heart … honestly I don't understand why he seems to dislike you so much ...”

“You and me both …” He sighed, looking at Lance's back. “But I'm fine with him being there and hating me, so long as I don't stay trapped in here with him as my only company.”

“Yeeeah … I wouldn't want that to happen either.” Pidge laughed.

Looking at her friends who were passing by, Hunk trying to dodge Lance's attempts at communication, she leaned closer to Keith, which kinda startled him, and whispered in his ear.

“By the way, let's keep the conspiracy blogs a secret between us two, okay ? The others aren't really interested in this stuff anyways.”

The ghost signed that it was okay by him.

They then fell into a comfortable silence, both of them, mostly Pidge, trying to grasp bits of the conversation the two boys were having in the kitchen.

However when Pidge understood that Lance was teasing Hunk about spending some time alone with Shay, she eagerly sprinted off the couch and into the room to join the gossip, leaving Keith on his own.

The ghost paid no mind, and stayed there for a while, listening in on the conversation, but decided to leave these friends alone after he deemed he had not interest into what they were talking about, as he went back to the cupboard.

* * *

Some time had passed when he went out, and the first thing he heard were frantic voices. Keith thought something was wrong, so he dashed to the living room, but saw that everything seemed to be in order.

The reason they were behaving this way was apparently because they were losing at an online game.

“Lance ! What the heck ! Why didn't you heal me ?!” Pidge screamed in frustration.

“Hey ! Don't talk to me like that ! Hunk is the tank, he is top priority !” He replied.

“But I was about to kill that guy !” She added.

“Well maybe you should have told me !” He pointed out in frustartion.

“Guuuys … please ...” Hunk nearly whined.

Keith was slightly intrigued by the whole exchange. Sure, he had already played online games, including the ones they were playing right now, but just like in real life he tended to be a lone wolf.

The trio kept on playing, eyes fixated on their screen. Their voices dimmed down for a while, before rising up again, but this time it was because they actually won the battle.

After a short victory celebration, and apologies, they played at a moderate pace, without a snag. That is, until they reached a dungeon.

“Come on ...” Hunk pleaded. “There's some really cool armor we can get in this one, and we never did it before !”

“Yes. Because it requires four players. And we're three.” Pidge said.

At that, Keith cleared his throat, catching the trio's attention.

“Um … I could lend you a hand if you wanted ? I already played that game. I have an account ...” Keith meekly offered.

“What ? You want to be a ghost player ?” Lance chuckled, turning to Keith.

The ghost looked at him funny, and Lance became slightly distressed, and proceeded to glare at him once again.

Hunk seemed to lit up at the idea.

“That would be so cool !” He said excitedly. “We have a spare laptop in case something goes wrong, I guess you could take it.”

“Yes, let's do that then.” Pidge decided. “Lance, could you bring the laptop, please ?”

“What ?! Why do I have to- okay, I'll do it.” He said, reluctantly getting up and heading to Pidge's room.

When he came back he went back into the game, after he practically pushed the laptop into Keith's chest, with a “There, mullet.”.

The gang waited for the ghost to connect to the game and join them, and when he did, they were impressed by his levels.

“Whoa. Not gonna lie, I thought you would be at a lower level.” Hunk whistled.

With them being four, they could finally access the dungeon. Most of it went smoothly, safe for the fact Lance practically refused to heal Keith's player, that is, until Hunk scolded him.

They eventually managed to complete the dungeon, and went on to complete quests. They played together for a few hours, having to pause here and there to take care of some needs, including ordering food, before they had to stop and eat.

As they were clearing up the table, Keith felt a pang of guilt. These people had just accepted to let him hang out with them instead of chasing him away, despite what he had done the days before.

He cleared his throat to try and get their attention from the entrance of the kitchen. They all turned around, and Keith gulped, shifting his eyes between them and the ground, hesitant.

Hunk was about to ask him what he wanted, when he finally got the will to speak.

“I'm … I'm sorry.” He started. “For what I've done to you. You didn't deserve it ...”

“It's okay.” Hunk said. “It was a simple misunderstanding. I'm just glad we don't have to worry about you scaring us now. Plus the whole meddling-with-your-secret-personal-stuff thing was uncalled for.”

“Yeah, I think so too.” Pidge added. “And before you say it, no, I'm not mad at you or anything, even if you tried to hurt me. Don't feel guilty about it.”

Keith felt guilty nonetheless, but their words lifted an imaginary weight on his chest. Part of it went back, however, when he turned to look at Lance, who was looking daggers at him.

He visibly flinched under his stare, and looked to the side, rubbing his right arm.

“Lance ...” He tried to start.

“Save your nonexistent breath.” He said rather calmly. “You'll know when I'll forgive you … if I ever do that.”

Keith felt hurt, even if he told himself that it wasn't worth it anyway. That he would just have to wait.

Pidge and Hunk gave Lance a look of disapproval, and looked at Keith with pity, as they made their way back to the table to eat.

They watched an anime that Pidge requested they'd watch in the original version, with subtitles.

Her friends didn't really understand what was going on in most of the things she watched, but stood by her side anyways.

Hunk was about to take a slice of pizza, when he noticed some of it was gone.

He looked around to ask who took a piece, and he noticed crumbs around Keith's mouth. The ghost caught him staring and went red in the face.

“Sorry ...” He stammered. “I just wanted to see if I could still eat, you know ? ...”

“Oh … uh, that's okay. I guess that would be the first thing I'd try to do if I ever became a ghost.” Hunk said, laughing a little. “If you could just try not to do that often … please ?”

“Yeah, we don't have enough money to feed another mouth, especially one that has no need for it.” Lance commented without looking at them.

Keith's shoulders fell at that, Hunk patting him in the back in a comforting gesture.

“Don't worry about him, he'll come around. Eventually. He's a nice guy, trust me.” He whispered to the ghost, adding a knowing wink before he went on to eat a slice, looking back at the laptop's screen where some guy was apparently turning into a demon king because he was angry or something.

The ghost stared at them for a while, and when he saw that they were starting to show signs of fatigue, he discretly made his way back to the cupboard, authorizing himself to smile.

Maybe being stuck in this place wouldn't be so bad if these people were around, safe for that Lance, but he trusted Hunk and Pidge to tell the truth when they said he was a nice person.

And maybe in time he would figure out a way to get out of there and be able to roam free, outside, and maybe even pay visits to Shiro.

With one last look to the others who were preparing to go to sleep, he slipped through the door and into the darkness of his refuge.

* * *

 

_Keith was delighted as ever when he entered his username and password. His posts on Mothman, and overall his entire blog had gained popularity faster than he had expected in the last few years._

_Of course, with popularity came both good and bad things, but Keith simply didn't care._

_Shiro had made fun of his choice of name, and he had to admit he had come to agree with him. At the time, it seemed like a good choice and a clever pun, but now … not so much._

_Ever since he begun to be really well known around the world of conspiracy theorists, he was bombarded with questions related to his theories, or himself in general._

_He never answered the latter. He liked giving off a mysterious vibe, and he didn't feel like writing down his life's story to some strangers on the internet._

_He chuckled at the thought that people knew so little about him, nobody would know he was gone if he died one day. It didn't really matter as it wouldn't happen before long, he told himself._

_He updated his blog about the latest Bigfoot sightings, which was sure to get more votes than his post about the Mokele Mbembe, and logged out, shutting off his computer and preparing to go to sleep._

_Tomorrow would be his first day at the Garrison._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _That night, that ride,_  
>  Those wings, those eyes,  
> That sound I hear,  
> It can't be human.
> 
>  
> 
> -  
> Pfew. That chapter was a pain to write. I mostly wrote it while being half-asleep.  
> Speaking of that, the Mothfan thing wasn't planned ... it just sorta ... happened. I don't even remember writing it to be honest. But it made me laugh, and I had been stuggling to find a way for Keith and Pidge to bond, so I kept it.  
> But hey, look ! It's only posted a week after the last chapter ! And the upcoming one is already in the works, because I'll be busy this week-end. 
> 
> -  
> Also ! The things in italics are going to be bits of Keith's (or Shiro's) life, in the past year, obviously. I'll try to make one every chapter, but I'm not sure I will manage to do so. 
> 
> By the way, I forgot to mention that in the note of the last chapter, but if you get where the whole "bearers of specific items can see the ghost" comes from, I officially love you.  
> (Hint : it's a cartoon.)
> 
> (Sorry for writing that much ^^')
> 
> Thanks for reading ! Hope you enjoyed so far !


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, welcome on the fifth chapter.
> 
> First : Sorry for not updating last wednesday.
> 
> Second : Thanks for the kudos and the comments, I really appreciate it and it motivates me to write more. ^^
> 
> Aaand ... that's about it.
> 
> Hope you'll enjoy this chapter !

When Keith got out of his trance this morning, he was met by two very grumpy looking boys.

He didn't try to approach them and let them eat in peace, instead going outside on the balcony.

It wasn't until he heard them talk to each other that he came back inside to greet them.

“Good morning.”

Hunk responded by a small hum, Lance, as expected, ignored him.

“What's going on ?” He inquired, confused by their apparent state of mind.

“Thursday.”Hunk said.

“Thursday ? …” Keith asked, even more confused.

“Yeah. They hated thursdays the year prior, and they still hate it this year. Something to do with the schedule or something.” Pidge explained, coming into the kitchen to sit at the table with the others.

“Oh ? …” The ghost said, looking to be deep in thoughts.

“What's got you bothered ?” Hunk asked.

“I think I got my memory triggered or something …” He said, still wondering what it was.

“Oh that's great ! You're remembering stuff !” Pidge said excitedly. “What is it you remembered ?”

“I don't know for sure … what I know is that it's rather unsignificant ...”

“Small steps, Keith. Small steps.” Hunk smiled.

Keith couldn't figure it out, so the others continued to eat and prepare for the day. As they were about to go away, the ghost figured it out.

“Oh, I see now.”

“What is it ?” They asked at the same time.

“The thing I just remembered was … how much I hated thursdays too ...” He said that last part a bit quieter.

Hunk and Pidge both laughed at his apparent embarassement.

“As Hunk said, small steps.” Pidge said between giggles.

“Hey Lance !” Hunk called for his friend. “ Turns out your rival Mr Perfect hated thursdays too !”

“Yeah, yeah ...” Lance said in a somewhat bored tone, before catching on on what Hunk had just said. “And I never called him that, ever !”

“Sure.”

Lance went on to pester Hunk and tell him that, no, he never called his rival Mr Perfect. Because he wasn't. This exchange left Keith confused for what felt like the umpteenth time this morning, and made Pidge laugh out loud before she realized they were late, yet again.

After some quick goodbyes, they all dashed out of the apartment and into the stairs, where Hunk almost fell on his friends. Keith was left alone again, but this time he knew where to find a spare laptop he was probably going to favor over sitting in a dark empty cupboard with his mind going blank. Maybe he could check out his blog, or play that game they played together and collect items for the three … the four of them.

 

As Keith was deciding what to do, the others were probably breaking some kind of world record in the “Running towards the bus stop with bags in the early morning.” category.

They made in just on time, and allowed themselves to catch their breath once inside the bus.

When they arrived in the Garrison's buildings, they met up with Shay, who had just gotten out of a car that was already going away. Hunk tried to see what the driver, Shay's brother, looked like, and as he did he saw that he was sending him some kind of death glare. He shivered a bit, and turned around to greet Shay, who was already with the others, heading to the amphitheater.

Like on monday, they had zoology with Professor Labos. And like on monday, the lecture was boring.

Next they had a bit of free time as the tutorials didn't start before next week, so they spent it at the library on Pidge's suggestion. They arranged their notes and talked about the lecture they had and the ones they were going to have from 1 PM to 4:30 PM.

They went to eat at their usual place in the cafeteria, Shay thanked Hunk again for giving her a tour of the campus, which was met by a somewhat blushing Hunk and his two snickering friends.

The time of the next lecture, Physics, was drawing near, so they went in early and took the best seats, according to the boys.

A constant flow of students was entering the place, the ones who were already seated waiting for the professor to make his entrance.

To their susprise, the one person who got onto the stage wasn't Professor Sendak. Some students tried to see if he was waiting behind a door and the guy who just walked in was just a P.A., but nobody else seemed to come.

Some chatter started, students whispering that the lecture had maybe been postponed, that Sendak was ill or late, and other kinds of speculations.

The room fell silent when the mystery person cleared his throat, and began to talk.

“Hello, students. My name is Ulaz, Professor Ulaz. I know you expected Mr. Sendak, however he wont be able to make it for the first few months, or even beyond. I assume you understand that means I'll be his replacement for the semester, at the very least.

Now, let's not get these introductions get us away from what you came here for, I hope, which is learning about Physics. This year, we'll be learning about ...”

As the professor continued on, seemingly starting the lecture, Pidge noticed her friends, especially Lance, as well as other students, had a big smile on their faces.

She looked to see if the professor was paying attention to her and grabbed at Lance's arm, who turned to look at her, a questioning look on his face.

“Who was this Sendak guy ? I mean his name sounds familiar, but … And why does everyone look so happy ?” She asked quietly.

“Sendak was a huge jerk, and this guy seems to be okay. That's who, and that's why.” He whispered.

That answered satisfied Pidge, who nodded him a thanks and went back to taking notes on her laptop.

Shay was sitting next to Hunk and didn't hear the answer, so she turned to him to asked him too.

He roughly answered the same thing, adding that he suspected Sendak to be an even bigger sadist than Iverson, which made Shay look at Lance with pity. For some unknown reason, Hunk felt slightly bothered that she was looking this way at his friend and not at him, but brushed it off.

The lecture went swiftly, and near the end Lance was showing small signs of distress, which were easily explained by the fact they were going to have Iverson next.

With a heavy heart, he made his way to the amphitheater that he had dubbed as “The Torture Chamber”. Hunk gave him a pat on the back, and Pidge gave him a wink. They were heading to the far ends of the room when Lance felt an arm on his back and turned around. To his horror, Iverson was looking right into his eyes.

“Not so fast, troublemaker. You'll come sit in the front right where I can see you. Without your friends.” He added.

Some students looked at Lance with pity, but some others snickered. Hunk was desperately trying to keep Pidge from strangling their professor.

Lance's shoulders fell, and he tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall and would only add more embarassement on his case.

Shay tried to interpose.

“Sir … excuse me but … could I seat next to him ? You see I'm new and Hunk right there ...” She gestured to him with a smile. “Already had to help Pidge here.”

“Nice try, but I know a Holt when I see one. She doesn't need help. Go seat with your friends wherever you want, but not next to him.” He ordered, pointing to Lance, who was reluctantly taking his stuff out of his bag.

The professor made his way on the dais, and the trio went to seat not too far from Lance, but far enough so that they wouldn't trigger an angry outsburst from that madman.

The lecture was a nightmare for Lance. Iverson kept bringing him up, and embarassed him in front of the other students. Pidge officially added “Kill Iverson ASAP” on her to-do list. Hunk was boiling internally, and Shay felt guilty she wasn't able to subdue the professor into letting her stay with her new friend.

Once the lecture ended, they didn't manage to catch up with Lance as he was practically the first one to get out. They found him in the corner, looking grim. He didn't say much aside from a ”Let's go.” as he made his way to the bus stop.

When they got back to their place, they found Keith waiting for them in the living room, a laptop to his side. He went to ask them about their day and stopped dead in his tracks when Lance walked through him, heading to his room. He looked at the other boy with a hint of worry and a lot of confusion.

“Is he ignoring me on a whole new level now ?” He asked the other two.

“I think he just didn't see you.” Hunk said.

“But he was wearing the bracelets ! How could he not see me ?”

“Listen, Keith …” Pidge took him by the arm, while Hunk went to the kitchen to try and prepare something with what they had, that would hopefully cheer their friend up. “Lance had a rough day … a rough end to this day, to be more specific.”

“Why ?” Keith asked, curious about that last statement.

“You see … there's this professor, Iverson … for some reason he hates him. He hates a lot of students, but he seems to hate Lance the most.” She explained.

“And … what happened ?”

Pidge told him of what Iverson made Lance go through during the lecture, and she also mentioned the fact this had already happened on monday.

When she specified that he got in trouble because Hunk fell asleep, Keith felt guilty. He wondered if Lance got the pieces together and deduced that he got lectured and humiliated because of him. If this was the case, his hatred towards him was only going to grow stronger with this new episode.

The name Iverson seemed to trigger his memory again, but his memories were too vague for him to figure out why. As he decided he didn't like the guy now, he assumed he must have hated him then.

“Please, try to ignore him too. In this state, he's most likely going to not react much, but you never know.” She advised him.

Keith promised he would do as told, though right now it wasn't needed, as Lance was still locked up in his bedroom. After a while they realized he was listening to some music, blazing loudly from his headphones, as they could hear it.

Worried about his ears, Hunk tried to bang on his door as calmly as he could manage, and got him to open the door. He was looking grouchy, and dismissed Hunk's comments, before locking the door up again.

Hunk went back to the kitchen, determined as ever to cook something that would force him to go out.

Pidge helped him, as well as Keith, who was surprised by the fact Hunk worked around the kitchen like a professional chef.

Sure enough, the smell of food was what successfully made Lance leave his room, and his friends made sure he wouldn't be able to escape back into it.

Hunk and Pidge both knew he was a people's person, and that his tendency to go sulk in a room to ignore his problems and mishaps of the day on his own was counterproductive for him. They would always try to bring him back to the outside world when they would find him in this state, using either food, music, or video games. And if all else didn't work : social media.

As it was, food seemed to have done the trick, as well as no mention of today's events. They were also watching a cartoon, and it appeared to distract him from thinking of going into hiding again.

Keith had paid no mind about the cartoon at first, but when Pidge told him it was about twins having adventure in a town full of conspiracies and other unexplicable things, he got hooked.

They spent a little more time awake, maybe more than they should have, but it was worth it, as Lance was feeling much better than he had previously been, and they didn't have any courses in the following morning. He apologized for his behavior, and thanked them for being there for him. To Keith's surprise, he didn't exclude him. Or at least, he didn't explicitly stated it.

Hunk and Lance eventually went to bed, leaving Pidge and Keith alone.

She was scrolling down her blog, and showed Keith the votes their latest post got. Keith smiled a bit, and suggested she'd take a look at his own blog. She did, and nearly fainted when she read the latest post.

“Oh my god, no, you didn't-”

“Yes I did.”

Pidge tried to hug him, but Keith was surprised and shifted out of his corporeal state for a few moments, just enough so that Pidge fell to the ground. He apologized to her, but her current state of mind made her unfazed by the incident. Keith had just shown her a recent post where he stated that he would now post articles on her blog, via collab or individually, and he suggested they'd go and check it out. He also had apologized for his absence, telling his followers he had simply been feeling under the weather.

This post already had a ton of votes, but he had been gone for months so most of his followers had probably not seen it yet.

Pidge couldn't keep herself from reading the comments, and squealed every time someone referred kindly to her blog. There seemed to not be any hateful comments for now.

All that agitation finally made her tired enough to go to sleep. She thanked Keith again, and they went their own ways, saying goodbye for the night.

* * *

 

The next day was pretty uneventful, safe for a few students coming to bother Lance after the only lecture of the day. Thankfully, Professor Coran was on the watch and scolded them like they were toddlers, which made them leave Lance alone.

They had slept in and had taken lunch at the apartment for the very first time. Keith was just glad he hadn't been alone in the morning for once.

 

* * *

 

Saturday morning, Keith was woken up by voices, and the doors opening and closing. He went into the living room to see both Hunk and Lance going out of the apartment. He learned yesterday night that they had a job to attend to, but he hadn't figured out it would be early in the morning.

He peeked his head through Pidge's room and saw that she was there, still asleep.

He tried to clean up a little to let his mind focus on a task, and did so until Pidge woke up. When she did, he waited for her to go sit at the breakfast table before engaging into a conversation.

“Slept well ?” He asked.

“Uh ? Oh, Keith, didn't see you there.” She said, turning to look at him. “But, yeah, I slept well, thanks.”

She didn't eat, instead serving herself with some milk, and Keith wondered why. When Pidge caught him staring with a questionning look, she understood his confusion and explained.

“I'm not eating because I intend to go to a café.”

“Oh … why though ?”

“That's where Lance and Hunk went to work this morning. I intend to pay them a surprise visit, and I'll eat there while I'm at it”

“I see … so you'll be going there soon?” He asked her.

“Yeah, in about ten minutes ...” She started. “Oh, right. Sorry about that.”

“It's okay …”

Pidge then asked him if he wanted to try and drink some milk. But Keith refused, explaining he was lactose intolerant, and didn't want to risk it even as a ghost. So she opted for some apple juice they had in the fridge and that they hadn't opened yet. When he drank it, he grimaced a bit.

“What is it ?” She asked, concerned. “You don't like it ?”

“No, no I do it's just … it kinda burned my throat ...” He explained, bringing his hand to his neck, trying to rub the slight pain away.

“Uh ?” She said, surprised, before trying to drink the same juice. “... I don't think this apple juice is different from the others … and it doesn't taste like it's acid ...”

“Maybe it has something to do with me being a ghost ?” Keith pondered.

“Maybe ? Anyway, I gotta go.” She said as she took her bag, put her necklace in it, and headed to the door. “I'll come back in a few hours. Again, sorry about that.”

“It's okay.” He said, yet again, even if he knew she most likely didn't hear him, as she disappeared after closing the door.

To be fair, it wasn't okay. Keith was getting fed up of staying on his own in this place. He really wanted to go outside, he couldn't stand it anymore.

Once again, he tried to go through the main door. He closed his eyes, took a few steps, went out of his corporeal state, and lauched himself at the door, bracing himself for the impact. But that impact never came.

Instead, he found himself in the corridor. He stood there for a while, mouth agape, but quickly rushed off to the stairs to see how much freedom he could get.

He went down the stairs. One storey. Two storeys, and so on. Soon enough, he was in front of the building's door. He took a large breath, and went through it with ease.

That was it. He was outside, on the street. Finally, he was free from the limits of his prison.

He rushed off to the side, trying to see if he could get wherever he wanted, but as he was reaching the end of the street, he was met with the same force that held him back in the apartment.

Groaning, he told himself that now he could at least go to some other places. He tried to go to the other end of the street, where a bus stop stood, and saw that Pidge was waiting for one.

He tried to find a way to show her he was there, but he couldn't, as she boarded the bus. Keith wanted to follow her, but knew he it would be impossible as the bus was going to go to another street. To his surprise, once the bus started moving, his body did as well. He tried to free himself from that invisible force, but gave up once he understood he couldn't.

He felt a little silly, being dragged around town by a bus, but he took this opportunity to take in the sights of the city, hoping some buildings could jog down his memory. It didn't, but at least he got to see it again.

Soon enough, the bus arrived to the destination Pidge had in mind, and she went out of it and into a cozy-looking place on a busy street, called the “Café of Lions”.

It was nicely decorated, with two lions painted to the sides of the main door, on the windows. Its primary color seemed to be white, blue and black on the outside, but the atmosphere seemed warmer on the inside.

Keith took some hesitant steps, and started to hover in the air as he stayed still, looking at his surroundings, and jumping a bit every now and then when people would go through him. He told himself he should really try to get used to that.

After a while, he decided to go inside the place, and waited for another customer to open the door, so as not to freak out anyone. There seemed to be a lot of people coming at this place, and it was easy to distinguish the newcomers from the regulars. Most people ordered coffee with some pastries, some ordered fresh drinks, as the weather outside was really warm and sunny. He could hear them talking to their friends, colleagues or acquaintances, about said weather, jobs, politics, or other mundane subjects.

He saw Pidge waiting in line at the counter, watching Lance flirt with a customer around his age. She giggled, but by the look on Lance's face as she went to take a seat, it didn't go well. When Pidge's turn came to order, Keith could see that she was teasing Lance about his failed attempt, though he seemed to pay no mind.

She left him alone and went to take a seat not far from the counter, getting a book and headphones out of her bag, and sipping her coffee.

She hadn't put back her necklace on, but Lance had one of the bracelets on his wrist.

Keith took a seat that was unoccupied, and away from Lance's field of vision, and stared at all the life around him.

Alive, he would have gotten weird looks for sitting here, in that place, and for his general attitude and appearance. Specifically, his choice of clothes, and his haircut. Sometimes girls would try to flirt with him, but he simply ignored them, even though that behaviour had been known to be counterproductive from time to time.

This lack of attention from strangers was a blissful gift, but also a grim reminder that he didn't belong anymore. Not that he had felt like he belonged in life either.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by shouting, and an out of place movement at the corner of his eye made him turn around. He saw that Pidge was trying to deal with a shady looking customer, coffee cup in hand, who was apparently trying to get her to move out of her seat.

Keith got up of his chair and walked towards the guy from behind. He saw that Lance was busy with making coffee and couldn't act. Pidge refused to let the man take her seat, and in response he lifted his arm up in the air, ready to strike her. But the blow never came, as Keith took hold of his arm.

And in one swift motion, he sent the man to the ground, the hot coffee from his cup spilling all over the guy's face.

Everything went silent in the Café, safe from the man's screams, yelling for someone to bring him a towel. Pidge was confused, as were the other customers. Lance went through with a towel, and the man snatched it off of him.

Once he was done cleaning up his face, he asked for a refund and threatened Lance with calling his manager and suing him, before he stomped out of the place, earning himself a few look s from passersby.

After a few minutes, everything went back to normal, but Lance asked for Hunk to take his shift, answering his friend's questions about the incident. Hunk wasn't wearing his belt, and couldn't see Keith either, so he went through him, which made Keith shudder, again.

The ghost was ready to go back to his seat, when he saw Lance glaring at him from the staff room. Once Lance knew Keith saw him, he gestured for him to come.

Keith floated hesitantly towards the room, not really understanding what Lance wanted from him.

As he approached Lance, he was taken by the collar and put into a cupboard, that the other boy closed behind them.

“What the hell was that ?!” He whispered angrily.

“What the hell was what ?” Keith asked back, confused.

“That guy ! Why did you karate him or something ?” Lance said, a little louder this time. “This is a Café, not an underground wrestling competition !”

“Hey, I did what I had to do, okay ?” Keith answered defensively. “He was about to hit Pidge.”

“I could have handled it !” Lance said.

“How ? You were busy, behind the counter. By the time you got there she would have been hit.” Keith pointed out.

“Pidge knows how to defend herself ! She didn't do it because you're not supposed to assault people in a public place ! There are other ways to defuse that kind of situation than to attack people like a psycho !” Lance said quite rapidly.

“Well, sorry for trying to defend one of the people who forgave and trust me.” He said rather coldly.

“Well, thanks for trying to do that, and putting my job on the line !” Lance retorted.

“So you're the kind of guy who'd rather have one of his friends hurt than lose their job ? Why doesn't that surprise me ?”

As soon as he finished that sentence, Keith's face was met by an enraged fist. The blow made him lose his corporeal state, as well as his sense of direction, and he found himself in the wall. He rubbed his sore nose, and found that some kind of blood was coming out of it. He went back in the cupboard where Lance was waiting for him, still glaring.

“You don't know shit about me, so I would kindly ask you to shut the fuck up !”

With that, he got out of the cupboard as Hunk was calling for him to take his shift back. Keith stayed in the cupboard for a while, angry at Lance, but mostly angry at himself. He punched one of the walls in frustration.

Why did he always have to find himself in these situations ? Why couldn't he control his anger better ? Why couldn't he just shut up, restrain himself, instead of starting conflicts, or making them worse ?

He stayed in the dark of this place for a while, trying to cool down, but the darkness of this cupboard didn't feel as calming as the one back home.

Thankfully, when he got out, all the while trying to avoid being seen by Lance, he saw that Pidge was on her way out of the Café. He followed her and this time he too boarded the bus.

He silently followed Pidge back to the apartment, and once she entered she put her necklace back on and greeted him. Keith had hurriedly went through the walls and tried to play it off as if he had stayed there the whole time she went away, a bit ashamed of what he did. His little act could have worked had he not forgotten about a small detail : his nose.

“Oh my gosh, what happened to your face ?” She asked.

“My wha- oh, my … you mean my nose ?” He said, trying to touch it and flinching a bit when he felt the pain. “I just hit it against a table corner.”

“Really ?” Pidge asked, suspicious.

Keith didn't really want to talk about what happened, but he figured Lance would tell her anyway, pissed off as he was, so he gave up.

“Ugh … alright, Lance punched me in the face.” He admitted, sighing.

“Lance punched you- what ? How ?” Pidge asked.

“You see, this morning I discovered I could follow you outside, and I went in the café …” He started, looking to the side. “ … and then that guy tried to hurt you ...”

“Oh … okay, that explains what happened, for the guy, and for your nose too, I guess.” She said, tapping her chin with her finger.

“How come ?” Keith asked her, a bit lost.

“Look, as you know, we're not exactly bathing in money. I don't have any jobs … I tried babysitting once and let's just say it didn't end very well …” She explained. “Hunk works at a repair workshop, and sometimes comes by the café to help Lance, by making pastries and the likes ...”

“So … that's why he's there too ?...”

“Yes, but he only comes around at the start of the year. Now, Lance works two jobs. He works at the Café, and at a flower shop on some specific times of the year. He is really keen on keeping his jobs, and he is right to do so. Because as much as Hunk loves working where he does … it doesn't bring as much money as the café or the flower shop do. You see where I'm going ?”

“Oh ...”

“Yeah … but I'm wondering, what did you say to make him hit you in the face ? He isn't a violent guy usually.”

“I said he probably cared more about his job than his friends ...” He answered, realizing now why this had angered Lance that much.

“Ouch.” Pidge cringed.

“Yeah ...” He sighed.

“Well, you'll just have to ask him to forgive you … and pray it goes better than last time ...” She shrugged awkwardly. “He wont be back until tonight, so you have a lot of time to think up an apology.”

“Yay.” Keith muttered unenthusiastically.

Keith then let Pidge get her stuff back to her room, as he tried to figure out how to fix his nose. He put a bandage on it, an hoped it would heal, or whatever ghosts did when they got injured.

Through the rest of the morning, they played games. Then Pidge ate and got out of the apartment to get on time to her informatics classes. Hunk had called, and told them he wouldn't be back until late noon as his van was apparently repaired.

Keith sighed as she went out, and flew into the cupboard to pass the time and prepare himself for the frustration apologizing to Lance would bring to him.

 

At around the same time, Lance was on his way to his swimming classes. He had managed to keep his cool in front of the customers, but he didn't try to hide it in front of Hunk. It had taken his friend ice-cream to cool him off. But even then he was still fuming, Keith's words resonating in his head.

“Who does he think he is ? That little mulleted-”

“Hi Lance !” Said a familiar voice.

Lance looked up, and was met with Plaxum, one of his classmates from last year.

“Plaxum ? Is that you ?” He asked her, his anger cooling down a little more.

“Of course it's me ! I didn't change that much in three months, did I ? Oh ! I'm sorry I didn't stay in touch ! My phone died and I had to get a new one but I couldn't remember your number !” She rambled on.

“Oh, that's okay, I'll give it to you again.” Lance laughed as he got his phone out of his pocket.

“Thanks ! So, how are you doing ? I heard Iverson was being a douche again ?” She asked him.

“Tell me about it … but what about you ? I didn't see you anywhere ?”

“Oh ! Right … well, you see, I have recently moved out of my old studio, and then I went abroad and … I totally forgot that classes were starting again this week ...” She said nervously.

Lance laughed at that, and if Plaxum had been offended, she didn't show it, and even laughed with him.

He was glad he saw her again, as he kinda forgot about what happened with Keith for a second. They went to the pool together, talking about their summer, Plaxum asking about Hunk.

When they arrived they parted ways for the training sessions, as the girls' were usually separate from the boys', safe for some occasions. He rapidly changed into his swimwear in the changing room, and took a few selfies to share with his followers once he was done.

Lance distractedly listened to the instructions from their swimming coach, eagerly waiting for the moment he would be able to be in the water. He didn't have to wait for long, and he was grateful for that.

He really loved swimming. Ever since he was little, he had always loved it. He loved it so much he used to think he was a mermaid, well, a merman if you want, when he was a kid. To be honest, he was a pretty good swimmer. In fact, he was apparently the best swimmer in the Garisson. Then again, not a lot of students took these classes. He wondered if he would have still be considered the best had mullet-man joined them. Probably not, as Mr Perfect would have surely beaten all of his times by a long stride.

He tried to push that thought away by angrily blowing bubbles in the water. It didn't matter anyway. Keith was dead, so he would never be able to take that thing from him, no matter how hard he tried.

Wait, why was he thinking about that jerk again ?

His train of thoughts were interrupted by a whistle from their coach, indicating they were going to race. He decided to focus on it, and it alone. Mullet or not, he wasn't letting anyone take his proudest accomplishment away from him that easily.

 

A few hours later, he got out of the changing room, hair still damp and his mind feeling light. He took yet another selfie, with what he considered was his most seductive smile on, and posted it for the world to see. He met back with Plaxum, who had apparently waited for him, and they walked to the bus stop next to the pool. They discovered they both won their race, like last year. Then they talked about everything and nothing while riding on the bus. At one point of the conversation, Plaxum asked him about his love life.

Lance blushed a bit at that. He liked to give himself the character of a confident and carefree lady(and gentleman)-killer, but he couldn't handle well people asking him about his relationships, past or present, or lack-of, as it was of now.

Speaking of which, he had met Plaxum because of a blind date Hunk had organized for him after he got dumped by one of his ex-boyfriends. They didn't really click as more than friends, even though they gave it a try, but they were both content with being just friends.

He told her he was single at the moment, so Plaxum offered to present him to one of her friends who had told her she was looking for a boyfriend. Lance accepted, but only to satisfy Plaxum's little plan.

 

He parted from her along the way, and when he got back home, his first thought was to go lay on his bed. He had felt fine most of the day, but his tired body and mind were finally crying out in pain.

Unfortunately, Pidge and Hunk had seemed to be waiting for him.With Keith. Great.

“What is it ?” He asked rather irritably.

“A certain someone would like to try to apologize to you, that's what.” Hunk answered.

Keith tried to come near Lance, but he stopped him from coming closer with his hand, and looked at him rather firmly. Unable to take a hint, Keith stepped closer to him.

“Lance ...” He tried to start.

“As I have said before.” Lance said calmly. “Save your breath.”

This shut Keith up, and the ghost took a few steps back to let Lance go to his room. Lance sighed in relief when he went on his bed, stretching the stress and fatigue out of his sore limbs. The look on Keith's face had brought him some sort of pride, but he also felt guilty. He blamed himself for being so sensitive to other people's feelings, but he couldn't shake that thought out of his mind.

Though he had to give it to Keith, he had been trying. But no matter how hard he tried, if he was going to rile Lance up everytime like he did last year, then his efforts would just go to waste.

He hated feeling like this, so he put some music on and unknowingly went to sleep.

He was later awoken up by a knock on his door and Hunk's voice saying dinner was ready. He got out of his room, and as he went to the table he saw that Keith was trying to avoid his stare as best as he could. The feeling of guilt rose up in his throat once again, so he did the dumbest thing he could think of. He quickly took a glass of soda and emptied it in one shot to try and clear his throat from the feeling. It didn't wash it away, but it did made him choke.

Hunk helped him breathe again, but gave him a weird look that Lance just carelessly shrugged off, though his reddened face betrayed his embarassement.

After they ate, Lance went in the bathroom for his beauty routine and then back in his bedroom to check on his accounts on different social media platforms. He saw that his selfies at the pool had gotten the most likes and comments, as usual, and that he gained some followers.

With a smile on his face, he went out to get a glass of water from the kitchen. From the corner of his eyes, he spotted Keith, who probably didn't notice his presence, looking at the city lights and the few stars that could be observed in the cloud-free night sky. He looked a little down, but Lance was too tired to talk to him. Maybe tomorrow morning would be a better time.

With that, he turned around and went to bed, not aware that Keith had been watching his every move for the whole time, hoping that Lance would come to him.

 

The morning after, Lance was the only one to wake up. He went to the kitchen to make himself some coffee, why he hadn't gotten sick of this beverage after working at a café for the whole of last year was still a mystery to him. He was almost done when he heard some shuffling behind him, as well as a suspicious “thud” sound and a small “Crap.”.

He didn't need to turn around to know who it was, so he started the conversation as he gathered stuff up for his breakfast.

“Good morning, mullet. What'd'you want ?” He said with a surprisingly neutral tone.

This seemed to get Keith off guard, as the ghost didn't respond for a moment, trying to pick up the pepper pot he had pushed off the counter. Lance had to turn around and reiterate his question.

“What do you want ?”

“I … I uh … good morning ?” Keith said, a little confused, putting the pepper pot back where it belonged.

“Yes ? And ? ...” Lance pressed on, growing impatient.

“I just wanted to apologize … again ?” Keith carefully explained.

Lance took a deep breath at that. He didn't sleep really well last night, as he wondered wether or not giving Keith a chance would be a good decision. To be honest, he still hadn't made the choice. But it looked like things were going to go Keith's way, as time was moving fast and he didn't want to get into a fight this early in the morning.

“Alright, I'll listen.” He gave in.

Keith's face seemed to lit up at that, and he began to apologize properly, and repeated himself from the previous day.

Lance listened, and once Keith was done he told him he forgave him for what he did to him and his friends on the first days, and added that the whole Iverson thing wasn't his fault after Keith mentioned it. But he didn't hide the fact that he was still sour from what Keith said to him back at the café.

The ghost's face displayed a variety of emotions, before settling on a neutral one. At least one part of this was settled.

Glad this was done, Lance looked at the clock only to yelp and rush to the bathroom, and trying, and failing, to clean up and dress up as fast as possible. Keith offered to help him, but that was quickly declined by Lance, who was in his room, and was rather … not dressed. At all.

Once he was done, he grabbed a few snacks and headed out the door, telling Keith not to try and follow him outside. So he stayed still as Lance exited the place in a hurry.

 

A few hours after, Pidge woke up and went to check on Keith, to make sure he was still in the apartment with them and didn't go to the café, wondering how his talk with Lance had went, or if they even talked at all. When she didn't find him inside, she called out for him and heard him answering back.

She went on the roof, where she thought the voice was coming from, and guessed right.

Keith was sitting on the edge of the roof in his corporeal state, letting the wind swirl around him and mess up his hair. Judging by his attitude, Pidge understood things went better than she had expected, and she left him alone to go wake Hunk up and have breakfast, texting Lance to check up on him while she was waiting.

* * *

 

 

_Keith sighed, sitting in the front row. Thursdays, he decided, were the worst._

_The professors giving their lectures were all terrible, especially that Iverson guy, and it didn't help that he had no one to talk to._

_He looked around the amphitheater for a bit, as a distraction from his growing frustration. He heard the other students chatting and laughing with each other, talking about their day, some celebrities, making immature jokes, or offering to have a party and drink until they pass out to their friends, who sometimes offered even worse ideas in return._

_Keith sighed once again. It didn't matter that he had no one to talk to._

_Better be alone than in bad company._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I guess you could say Lance was literally choking on guilt._  
>  Eh ? Eeeeh ?  
> I'll see myself out ... 
> 
> -  
> Slightly longer chapter ! Yep, also one of the reasons it took so long. I didn't know when or how to finish it, and I had to modify some things, also I just didn't have a lot of time to write it. (And I've been posting stuff on my tumblr as well, which is ... exceptional, to say the least.)  
> I tried to upload it yesterday, but I couldn't because of stuff.
> 
> Anyways, as I said already, thanks for the kudos, the comments, the hits, everything.  
> I hope I'll be able to finish this fanfic, even though I feel the need to write some other things from time to time ...  
> As of now, this chapter's done, and I didn't think I'd go past the first 2 ones, so that's already something.  
> I'm ... still writing too much.
> 
> Hope you have a nice day !


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